


Black Sincline

by kdramawriter



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Action & Romance, Action/Adventure, Altean Myth, Dirty Talk, Dirty Thoughts, Eggplant, Eventual Romance, F/M, Filthy, Filthy Prince Lotor, Galra Myth, Lotor is still gray, Lotura - Freeform, Oh My God, Season 6 Compliant, Shameless Smut, Slow Burn, Smut, season 6
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-09 11:14:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15266295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kdramawriter/pseuds/kdramawriter
Summary: “You can’t outrun this.” Haggar’s voice boomed across.Before she knew what was happening, a violent gust of energy surged towards them. With only a few ticks to spare, she felt herself dragged into small compartment flush with the ground. The man in black covered her while the purple umbra of the force electric bomb swelled with a megaton of destruction. They both braced for impact. Allura held on to his waist and glanced overhead.The force electric bomb screamed above them, missing them by a few centimeters. Accompanying the bomb was the distorted field energy swooping over them like a sting ray, for a brief second, his digital mask unscrambled.Allura found herself face to face, with--it wasn’t possible. He was dead. She felt her heart in her throat.It was Lotor.As quick as a dream, his mask re-scrambled back so she was only looking at a black mirror. Lotor’s face only appeared for a fraction of a ticks. His mouth set in a grim determined line, his eyes wide and focused, but the only thing she knew was that he was staring at her with his own eyes. He was back. He hadn’t been driven mad by quintessence. Allura reached out to touch and clutched air. Lotor was gone.





	1. NEW STAR

**CHAPTER ONE - NEW STAR**

_One decapheb after the rift._

“On your left, Allura!” 

The voice was faint. Allura could barely hear it. A wave of nausea struck and she felt her mind snap back to the present. Her sight was still out of focus from the intense forward tumble that her lion managed to pull out of only a few ticks before. A huge ion beam, almost the width of her entire lion, shot so close that the meteor debris exploded into dust across her dash. Her ribs were tender. Gritting her teeth, Allura clutched her reverse thruster and pivoted Blue into a tight spiral away from the guns. 

She blinked fast. Blue was narrowingly avoiding gunfire from all sides, but a quick scan of the space battlefield made her stomach sink. Pidge and Hunk were both taking heavy fire. Both were trying to tag-team their way to safety, but Hunk was too slow and Pidge was too fast. They didn’t match. 

In the center of this chaos was Commander Trugg’s new weapon, a bio-beast which used space carbon as compact fuel. The bio-beast was no thing of beauty--its enormous body undulated with ships that it swallowed deep in its gut. Its sides lit up with the dying ships light. There would be entire crews, lost forever in the belly of the space beast. Allura felt nausea rising again. The churning motion of the bio-beast was just a precursor. It was getting ready to strike again--unleashing a kind of gas that seemed to cripple ships on contact. Allura suppressed the panic, she glanced at the two further Galra cruiser and triangulated the safest way through when when the red lion floated past like a limp toy. 

Allura gasped. 

“Lance, come in!” 

She kept the fear out of her voice, but she was so tired. This battle had been going on for quintents, she’d had slept, hadn’t eaten, and she barely had a few ticks to take care of her bio-functions. They were all running on thin reserves.

Allura shook her head. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. They were on a steady trajectory to earth when Commander Trugg ambushed them near the Black Eye Galaxy. She vaguely remembered when Lotor reviewed all the most lethal candidates for the Kral Zera, Trugg wasn’t on the top of the list, but then again, she didn’t have the bio-beast. 

Suddenly the warning systems screamed in her cockpit. They were in a particularly tricky pickle. The Black Eye Galaxy had an outer region that spun in a different direction from the gases and stars on the inside. Allura grimaced, she was in the region where the two opposing forces met, spinning away from each other. Her ship shuddered, pulling her into little gravitational pits, away from her paladins. 

“Allura, be careful! That’s where new stars are formed.” 

Her jaw fell open as she watched a star birth. The round mass grew into an column, millions of miles high. It was hot and blue. Blue like Lotor’s eyes. The pink clouds of glowing hydrogen gas flared into life when the new star flashed with power. 

“That’s one of the most powerful things in the universe, a new star. The force of gravity compresses atoms in interstellar gas until the fusion reactions begin. We have to steer clear.” Allura appreciated that even in the most dire situation, Pidge was able to lay down some facts. 

“Get out of there Allura. If you’re the path of a new star, even Blue can sustain serious damage. We’re in the densest star field I’ve ever seen. This nebula is packed like Zebulion taxi.” 

“I need to get to Lance.” 

Allura banked hard to the left to get the blue lion got out of the way of danger. 

“Where are you Lance?” Her command counsel finally materialized on screen. Lance croaked into view. 

“I’m so sorry Allura. The atmosphere controls. I just feel-” His head slumped forward. The red lion had taken huge hits and while normally the pilot cockpit was safe, it wasn’t today. 

“His oxygen levels!” Pidge slammed her hand down. “We gotta get the lions to safety.” 

“We can’t form Voltron, not without Lance.” 

The bio-beast was undulating. The damn thing was nearly the size of a Galra cruiser and it slithered through space, gnashing teeth and tail and approaching them with alarming speed. 

“Ugly one, aren’t you.” Allura muttered to herself. She shot blue’s freeze ray at the tail and slowed the nasty critter’s progress. 

“Pidge, you have to tow Lance!” 

“I’ll cover you and you tow!” Allura heard Hunk’s voice crackle with resolve. 

Watching the green lion swing out with the sky hook, Pidge fired her last remaining functioning cylinder and hooked into the red lion tail. The tail was the easiest part to catch. Allura sighed, finally it looked like there was a safe retreat. 

“I have an idea Paladins.” Allura maneuvered the blue lion so it faced everyone. “We have to enter the star field.” 

“That’s crazy!” Pidge’s voice was faint. 

“No, we can’t form Voltron and we can’t fight the bio-beast with one paladin down. We’re good enough pilots to maneuver in the starfield, but I think that dumb beast won’t be. Now, Pidge and Hunk. Go! Get as far as you can.” 

The four remaining active lions approached the starfield. Allura watched green cautiously tow the Red Lion while Hunk and Keith’s lion made a path ahead for Pidge to follow. Chewing on her lips. Allura chewed her lips. They were basically flying through a live minefield, but a minefield was safer than what was out there. 

“Allura, we were wrong.” She heard Keith’s voice take on an edge for the first time. 

“Holy shit.” 

“That’s not possible.”

“What in the holy heck??”

Allura checked her navigation console and her rear view floated up to her front screen. 

The biobeast didn’t stop at the star field. She watched with dread as a new star bloomed behind her and the biobeast snapped into the celestial body like a truffle. 

“No! No!” She slammed her thrusters, but a new star was rising right under her left paw. Her lion shrank back, even closer to the biobeast. There had to be somewhere she could reposition herself. The other paladins had already reached the end of the starfield. Allura tried tumbling, but with so many new celestial bodies forming, she was gonna guarantee herself a nonfunctioning lion. 

The biobeast yanked on Blue’s tail. Allura punched her bayard into the console, her mind forming a different kind of connection. She was close to death, she was ready to accept death, but not before she fought it tooth and nail. 

Out of the corner of her eyes, a massive black ship darted into view. This wasn’t a ship she recognized. The entire thing was painted black and matte so it was impossible to see the whole outline. She didn’t even know if the thing was piloted. It moved impossibly fast. 

“Hailing. This is Allura of Altea. You need to get out of here.” 

The black ship didn’t respond. It didn’t move either. Her eyes widened. The black ship had opened it’s gun ports, and one massive ion cannon was directed at her. 

Allura squeeze her eyes shut again, going deeper into the lion, deeper into the tech that her father made. Surely there was something, anything. Alfor was a genius at hiding new weaponry, there had to be something she could use. 

The ion canon’s boom was silent in space, but she could see the flash even with her eyes closed. Her ship was still intact. The cannon blasted a giant hole clean through the biobeast. She could even see the remains of the swallowed fleet inside the thing. 

When she turned back to the black ship, it was gone. Like she was dreaming. 

“Allura! What was that?”

“You saw it too, Hunk?”

“It had no signature anywhere. Except a star signature. It has the same energy signatures as those new stars.” 

Allura breathed in deep. No, it couldn’t. He was long dead. She had made sure of it. 

TO BE CONTINUED....


	2. ALTO

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allura faces her mystery rescuer and is determined to find out what really happened on New Altea.

**CHAPTER TWO - ALTO**

_Two decaphebs after the rift._

“Haggar!” 

Keith’s broadsword sliced through the charged air, and Haggar’s hand swung forward, the atmosphere around her swirled and hissed like a boiling vortex. He swung and pierced only a colored fog where Haggar was only a few seconds earlier.

Allura winced. She had a cut clean through her suit. It was bleeding, bad. The blood bloomed like an unruly carnation against her white suit. Haggar struck her early in the battle and her body vibrated with new magic the likes of which Allura had never seen before. Biting down on an empty glove, Allura tore a medical strip off from the leg of her uniform and slapped the thing against her open wound where she sizzled like a steak. Allura yelped. There was no way that that wouldn’t leave a mark. 

Her bayard was only few meters away, but in between, there was Hunk trying to throw off an Galran sentry who swung a blade so close, it might have shaved him if Hunk didn’t duck in time. Hunk’s right leg delivered a crunching blow to the sentry when the robot got within distance.  
The tide was against them. It had been against the paladins for two years. Without Zarkon or Lotor, Haggar was even more unpredictable, even more dangerous. She was millennias ahead of Allura in military knowledge and even more in alchemy. Allura grimaced. She noted, with great bitterness, that they had lost more battles than won, lives were forfeit, and even more planets that didn’t even know they existed were gone. Her helmut fogged up, thick as soup. Allura felt like she was suffocating, her chest rose and fell faster and faster--she pressed down on her wound and the shock of pain got her back to the present. 

Tucking herself into the smallest target possible behind a pile of supplies, Allura needed a minute. She couldn’t believe that they had fallen so neatly into one of Haggar’s traps. They should be smarter paladins by now. But Lance and Pidge were held deep in far-off Galra cruise. The witch exploited their one weakness--the paladins would never leave each other. Haggar knew that sooner or later, she could easily claim another victim, just by waiting like a spider on a feeder line. 

In the brief doboshes before this noisy hell broke loose, Allura had looked at Coran, Keith, and Hunk as they went over their plans to rescue Lance and Pidge for the fifth time. There was no room for error. Everyone had to do their part precisely, or their valuable lions, their only weapon against Galra Empire, would fall into Haggar’s hands. Allura shuddered. The risk was more than she could bear. 

“This is the right thing to do, Coran.” 

“We’ll all know the risks we’re taking.” Keith shook his head. “We can’t lose either of them. Lance is too important and without Pidge, there’s no reason to go back to earth. The blade of Mamora are in for this rescue mission. Hunk, what are you--?”

Hunk was at the one end of a sandwich that was nearly a meter long. Everyone watched, horrified, as Hunk deep-throated the sandwich like a python. 

“You’re going to choke!”

“Hunk, slow down.” 

Taking a momentary eating break, Hunk wiped his eyes. “I have to have fuel before we get Pidge. Also, I can eat my feelings can’t I?” 

That was the last time she laughed. The hard ridges of the space deck dug into her butt and Allura stretched her body on the ground, inching closer to her bayard when Keith appeared in her hiding spot. She grunted in satisfaction when Keith handed her the bayard. 

“Are you alright?”

“No. I don’t have to be.” 

Allura peeked over the packing container, the Blades were effective in their defense. They had pushed Haggar’s force back into an impregnable position. But that wasn’t the issue. The issue was always that the paladins were outnumbered fifty to one. For every one sentry under control, forty-nine more could crop up to blow up their strategy. 

“Allura, I have a plan.” Keith’s eyes snapped. “Pidge and Lance have trackers in their boots in case something like this ever happens to them. I know they’re at the south west corner of that Galra ship. Our embedded spy with the Blades tells me that’s only one floor above the launching pad of the rescue vessels. We get them, I pierce the floor, get us into the rescue pods, and we escape. Got it? You have to hold off Haggar.”

Allura nodded. Keith held out his hand and they both sprang up from their hiding place. With both their bayard brandished in hand, they stepped into the melee, back to back. 

Using her bayard, Allura managed to snap most of the weapons from the nearby sentries, ploughing a clear path for Keith to escape from her position. Soon, she had a pile of guns at her feet. 

“Not so fast, Princess.” 

Haggar descended from the sky like a latter day black angel. Her robes flapping in the winds that surrounded her vortex.

“Hell of an entrance, Witch.” Allura swung her bayard back and missed the witch by only fractions. Haggar swept her arm left backwards and all of the guns that Allura held went back into the arms of sentries. 

“Crap.” 

Allura’s bayard wrapped around Haggar’s body, pinning down her arms. Good, maybe without the use of her hands, the witch wouldn’t be able to introduce another fatal trick. The pull against the bayard was tremendous, Allura thought that the skin on her hands were frying to a crisp. Allura screamed. It felt like she had yanked a shoulder out its socket when she finally hoisted the Witch back. 

“You will not--”

The bayard fell to the floor as Haggar disappeared. 

“She’s suppose to hold corporeal form!” 

“Princess, the incorporating serum slipped into Haggar’s drink must have worn off.” Coran’s voice sounded shaken in her helmet. “What are you going to do, Princess?”

“I’ll find her. She’s not getting away this time.” 

“And why would I want to get away from my prize?” Haggar voice echoed in her mind. 

Whipping around, Allura saw only empty space.

“Allura. Your quintessence is quite different isn’t it?” 

Allura closed her eyes and soon found herself in the same astral plane that Haggar occupied. In this dimension, Haggar abandoned her witch-like garbs, and instead, she looked like Honerva with a pale pink suit of armor. 

“You wear the pink.” Allura stated, halting. 

“I have lost a husband and a son in this war.” Honerva-Haggar pointed a dagger-like finger at Allura. “You made him foolish, Princess. Lotor had my genius and his father’s instincts, he would have put an end to this war. He was my son, Princess! Who are you to take him away from me? You corrupted him. You made him weak. Was that what he wanted from you, your essence?” 

“No. He wanted more time.” Allura felt a short stab of pain, right between the ribs. 

“You went to Oriande with him.” 

Allura nodded. 

“Foolish boy. Oriande was not meant for him. He doesn’t know the Altean ways.” 

“He was still chosen.” 

“What will the sages do next? I’m not interested in finding out. And that is why I’ve destroyed Oriande, Princess.”

“No!”

In a flash, Allura felt herself dumping out of the magical realm. Haggar pinned her to the ground. The bruising pressure of Haggar’s staff at the base of her throat made her choke. Hot tears started pouring out of her eyes from the intense pressure. She gripped the other end of the staff, curling her hands around the metal, and directing her thoughts to breaking the bonds between the atoms of the Altean metal.

“I should have ended this when you were born.” Haggar’s eyes glowed like smoldering coals. 

From a few paces away, Allura heard Haggar scream in rage and when she opened her eyes again, she saw a tall man in black; his protective armor fitted against his body and his face was covered by a digital mask, like the Blade of Marmora, but it was smooth as black glass. Allura saw the reflection of her face in his mask. Glancing to the upper quadrant of the battle and she saw the same black ship again, it was matte so it almost disappeared into the space around it. Closing her eyes, she spun an energy ball between her fingers and lobbed it into Haggar face.

He didn’t linger. Using a heel strike, the man in black knocked the staff out of Haggar’s hands and hurled it into the firing engines of the nearby cruiser. 

He reached from her hand, Allura gripped it, hard. Yanked to her feet, they sprinted towards the Blue lion. It was only a few doboshes before Haggar recovered herself. 

“You can’t outrun this.” Haggar’s voice boomed across. 

Before Allura knew what was happening, the sound of ripping metal shredded across the deck. A violent gust of purple lightning surged towards them. With only a few ticks to spare, she felt herself dragged into small compartment flush with the ground. The man in black covered her while the purple umbra of the force electric bomb grew like a fat fire cloud over them. They both braced for impact. Allura held on to his waist and glanced overhead. 

The force electric bomb screamed above them, missing them by a few centimeters. Accompanying the bomb was the disturbance in the electric field. As it moved over them, for a brief second, his digital mask unscrambled. 

Allura found herself face to face, with--it wasn’t possible. She felt her heart in her throat. 

It was Lotor. 

As quick as a dream, his mask re-scrambled back so she was only looking at a black mirror. Lotor’s face only appeared for a fraction of a tick. His mouth set in a grim determined line, his eyes wide and focused, but the only thing she knew was that he was staring at her with his own eyes. He was back. He hadn’t been driven mad by quintessence. Allura reached out to touch and clutched air. 

“Allura, we’re retreating!”

“We have them?”

“Yes, we do. Make your way back. Now!”  


* * *

Allura was in a sumptuous field of flowers. Pink, white, and green. Her dress was short and white and the small blades of grass pushed into the skin on the back of her legs with delightful points of pressure. The sweet smell of grass made her sigh. She let out a whoop and started rolling down the hill, her hips and sides hitting the soft mound of grass, stirring up volumes of flower petals and dandelion mane. She stopped short. She rolled over a galra uniform. A familiar one. 

Sliding her hands up and down, the uniform was empty. She frowned. She knew who this was. 

“Allura! Wake up!”

Allura felt her eyes painfully open. Pain shot up her side. She groaned as she sat upright. Pidge’s huge brown eyes blinked at her. 

“I have to find him. I have to know what happened.” 

“Who are you talking about, Allura?”

“Prince Lotor.”

Rubbing her eyelids, Allura looked around. She had fallen asleep in lounge, her body cramped around a small pillowed area. 

Pidge slurped on her icy milkshake. Allura’s eyes drifted from the bottom of Pidge’s frosty glass to the creamy milk mustache on her paladin’s lips. If only, she didn’t know where milkshakes came from. If only she could have that cool dreamy goodness.

“Allura, how do you know he’s not dangerous?” 

“I saw him, Pidge. The black fighter. We’ve all seen him. He was with us at the battle with Trugg, he saved you and Hunk at Cassobass’s siege. Just now with Haggar, he got me out of there just as Haggar was about to deal me a fatal blow. I know it was him.” 

“We’re on a course to earth! How would you even find him?”

Allura grinned at Pidge, “I can find him.”

“Oh, is this like a boyfriend, girlfriend thing?”

“Please, Pidge! We were never together! Not after he betrayed my people.” 

“I dunno, Princess. You did shoot first. Which is totally fine in my book. And we left him in the rift. And if I were him, I wouldn’t be too excited to see you either.”

“Oh.” 

“If it was really him, how do you know he’s not crazy like Zarkon or Haggar? Everything we know about quintessence poisoning plays out the same way.” Pidge pushed up her glasses. 

“I think he’s the missing piece. There’s so much I still don’t know.” Allura rested her head on her chin. 

“Or, maybe you just really need closure with your ex.” 

“Again, Pidge, we were never together!!”

“I’ll give you some space.” Pidge shrugged and left Allura steaming by herself. 

Tracking a clever Galran prince who did not want to be found was harder than it sounds. After the tenth false lead, Allura was disheartened. It truly seemed like he hid himself so well, not even Slav could bet on a reality that he was hiding in. 

“Your Highness.” Allura’s ears turned towards the voice. 

“I am going to take leave of you and your team.” Romelle curtsied. “I am no longer needed here. Lotor is gone and I wish to return to my people.” 

“How will you get back?” 

“The Blades have a mission to my home.” Romelle was still looking down. “They want to investigate Lotor’s tech, especially when it comes to colony.” 

“Yes, the colony. How horrific.” Allura murmured. “Have you had news from the second colony? Are the people still in hibernation?”

“No, it appears that everyone was in cryo-sleep. Their bodies are recovered. But, it doesn’t make what Lotor did right.” Romelle’s eyes were flashing now. 

Allura nodded, her eyes closing briefly. Since the rift battle, she had interrogated Romelle often on the subject of the remaining Alteans. Some pieces of her story didn’t add up and Allura felt guilty that she was rehashing old trauma for Romelle, but she had to know. 

“I will go with you.” 

“Princess, that is not necessary.” Romelle startled. 

“There are many things I need for war, Romelle. Alteans and their technology is one of the many pieces. I need to see my people.” Allura’s face was set. She was already formulating a plan. If Lotor was hiding, it made sense that he would choose a place beyond the quantum abyss. She has just had take the leap, see what she could find. 

A few days later, Allura boarded the Blades ship with Romelle. The girl didn’t look like she wanted to interact very much, so Allura kept to herself. The Blades were better equipped to deal with the QA, their term for the abyss, since Keith had catalogued his entire experience in his official report. Not wanting to spend what felt like years on the back of a space whale, the Blades found a way to harness the same sensory adapters as the space whale to move through the abyss. There was no other ship that could do the same. 

“Allura, we’re landing in ten doboshes.” 

Allura’s eyes fluttered open. She was having the same dream again, the field, the Galra uniform. She pressed her hand to the window of the shuttle and peer below. 

On Lotor’s colony planet, Allura watched as Romelle ran into the crowd of Alteans who embraced her. She took her first steps outside of the Blades aircraft and a hush fell over the crowd. Allura looked out into the vast blue expanse of the sky, so much like home, and then to the gentle rounded green hills. Her heart was in her throat. The scent of flowers hit her nose and she felt her eyes water. How was this possible? How could a place be so familiar and so different? Her heart was beating so fast. There were so many Alteans--entire families that were here, safe and thriving. A tendril of home took root in her mind. 

“So, you did this.” She murmured to no one in particular. 

Every pair of eyes were upon her. Each step she took along the gangplank to the ground felt like it took decaphebs. When she finally landed on the soft ground, she was completely out of breath. More Alteans than she ever imagined to be alive was at the colony; the sight of them made her knees buckle.

“Princess Allura!” The crowd was hushed. They whispered among themselves. Many were too young to even remember the last royal family. As the lost princess of a dynasty murdered by Zarkon, even the most optimistic Altean didn’t hold out hope for her. But there Allura was, in paladin armor, pink and white. 

As she made her way through the crowd, hands reached out to touch her. She felt the brush of hundreds of fingertips on her arms. People were still in total disbelief. A surge of bodies from behind her kept propelling her forward, almost like she was a piece of driftwood in the water. There were so many skin tones, so many faces mirroring her own, with familiar markings under the eyes. 

“Princess, you’re real!”

“How did you stay alive, Princess?!”

“Mama, she’s so pretty.”

Allura’s face broke apart into a smile at the thousands of faces around her, solidifying a world that she thought she had lost forever. A strong pair of hands gripped her shoulders behind her, and she looked up into eyes that were as familiar as her fathers. 

“Uncle Aldonus?” 

“No. Aldonus was my great great grandfather. I’m Alex.” 

“Oh, Alex of Aldonus of New Altea. I would be your Aunt?” Allura couldn’t tear her eyes away. His face looked so much like family. She wanted to crumble in her kinsman’s arms, but she held herself together. She needed much from her people and it would not do to reveal more than she could. 

“Let me to take you to our city, Your Highness.” 

Alex escorted her to a waiting hovercraft and as they sped away from the crowd, he started with history of the new colony. New Altea unfurled in front of her. They sped by herds of four legged hoofed animals with magnificent triple horns, mauve-like hide color, and little fawns that tripped over themselves to catch up with the adults. In the sky, flocks of blue-winged animals soared through the cerulean sky. Allura spotted a golden winged insect, landing delicately on their dash, before buzzing off again. She didn’t know any of the wild life here. It was all so strange. Scanning through her memories, she realize that if Altea were destroyed 10,000 years ago, then this colony was nearly that old. 

“Alex, how long have the Alteans been here?”

“Around 7,000 years. Lotor started looking for us 3,000 years after Altea’s destruction.” 

“And how many of you are present from the Old Altea?” 

“There’s nearly 100 Old Alteans who still remember your world. They are quite ancient now. Some of them choose cryosleep to be awakened when the dawn of the new Altean age begins.” 

“And what of the colony that was drained for quintessence?”

Alex looked at her nervously. 

“What is it? Lotor is long gone. I made sure of it. You can tell me.” 

“There is much to explain Princess, and I don’t know if I am the person to explain it.” 

Allura frowned. There had to be someone who would tell her the truth of what happened. She chewed on her lips and inspected Alex’s face. There seemed to be something genuinely distressing him. He broke her gaze and directed her towards their stop. 

“This is Alto, our capital.” Alex parked the hovercraft and led her to a glass enclosed elevator that shot them to the top of the observation deck. “We’ve done well here.” 

“Capital? That means there’s more than one Altean city?”

“Yes, there are several planets close enough beyond the abyss that the we can safely travel to and from.” 

She gasped. Alto was complex, as a intricate as a crown jewel sitting at the top of the hill, the buildings stacked efficiently like sugar cubes in a circular perimeter. The hill was at the center of an enormous crystal clear lake. At the edge of the lake, she saw citizens fishing and hydro-dams collecting energy at the river mouth. It was orderly, elegant, and to Allura’s eyes, impossibly Altean. She stood at the top of the tower, gazing across the entire span of the city. But it was troubling to hear how Alex explained that New Altea already had interplanetary travel, it contradicted Romelle testimony. Allura chewed on her lips thoughtfully, why did Romelle lie about how successful they were? 

“New Altea.” She gripped the handrails. “It’s beautiful.” Blinking back tears, she didn’t think it was possible to be so moved by a place. She almost felt like she was in one of the Castle simulations that Coran designed for her incase she felt too homesick. But here, the wind was real, the trees would not pixelate as soon as she touched one. One building caught her attention. 

“What is that?”

“That’s the capitol building.” 

For all intents and purposes, the capitol building resembled the Castle of Lions that was destroyed in the final battle with Lotor. 

“You might see the resemblance--”

 

“Oh yes. How is that possible?” 

“Many of the original engineers from the first Castle of Lions still retained the blueprints when they left Altea for a separate construction project. It was quite a miracle that they were able to come together and piece it together again.” 

“Does it fly as well?”

“Yes.” 

“And, does it have a teleduv?”

“No, Princess. That was the one piece of King Alfor’s technology that we were not able to replicate. It seem to need a level of Altea alchemy none of us knew.” 

“Alex, these other Altean cities. Could I see a star map?”

“Of course, your highness.” 

Allura finally had a moment alone. There were long dinners and even longer meetings as she laid out plans for the next phase of the war against Haggar. She was so tired. She couldn’t explain how dire the situation was without giving away her own doubts. Every military failure had to be couched as a win to the new Alteans so they wouldn’t feel like they were being lead into a war they couldn’t win. She signed and stretched out on the small bed in the Castle of Lions. Eerily, the layout remained the same, but what would have been her room was a large conference room now. 

Glancing down, Allura finally had a time to concentrate on the star map. She used her fingers to expand and contract when certain location didn’t fit a pattern. In one particular cluster, she noticed the lack of geographic demarcation. There wasn’t a single planet, or meteor belt, or even at least a gaseous body in the region. 

“Interesting.” 

The next day, Allura requested the use of a personal shuttle and while Alex looked like he was about to protest, the idea of saying no to the Princess of Altea was clearly out of bounds for him. 

She slotted the star map into her ship’s navigation. After a quintent, Allura flew into the black space on the map. The map didn’t lie. It was like her encounter with the star nursery in the Black Eye Galaxy, utterly foreign. 

Her shuttle patrolled for doboshes in the void, there was neither energy signatures, solar flares, or celestial bodies. There was nothing. 

“Damnit.” 

She looked out into the blank horizon ahead of her on her windshield. Infinite blackness was almost too much to comprehend. Allura was staring so hard that she almost missed her reflection. Her marks glowed softly, like fluorescence beneath her skin. 

Gingerly touching her face, Allura frowned at herself. “But Oriande is gone.” 

“System in manual shutdown.” 

Her system computer announced the warning. Allura rushed to the manual override panel, but the entire thing was dead, unresponsive to her typing in new code. Power was gone. Atmospheric pressure dropped precipitously. She felt the gravity click off, releasing her from her seat. A dead spaceship in the middle of nowhere was bad. Very bad. 

“No!” She gasped desperately as she spotted the leak in her suit, her oxygen meter failing fast.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED...CHAPTER 3 - EXILED PRINCE

_Author note: Y'all, I have the third chapter all fired up and ready to go. Leave me 10 comments and I'll update as soon as we get to 10!_


	3. EXILED PRINCE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allura gets a history lesson in New Altea

**CHAPTER 3 - EXILED PRINCE**  
_Previously in Black Sincline, Allura travels to an cosmic anomaly outside of New Altea. Her ship’s malfunction puts her in dire straits._

She was born. Princess Allura of Altea. She was three years old, gripping the finger of her father. A large looming man gifted her a Galran helmet. She was ten years old, frustrated with a string instrument. Twelve years old, first love, first kiss. Thirteen, King Alfor and her mother grounded her for running away with her boyfriend. Fourteen, her father started looking older faster and faster. She was sixteen, she was good at academics, bad at diplomacy. Seventeen, her mother cries in her bed chambers at night. Eighteen, King Alfor kisses her on the forehead. Blackness. Darkness for eons until light filled world with the Paladins. The Balmera planet. Voltron. Fleets of Galran cruisers and their powerful guns stretching as far as the eye could see. Her lion, Blue. The brilliant lights of Oriande. She heard a man’s voice in the middle of a sentence... “Meant for you, not for me.” 

The alarms in her shuttle all were going off simultaneously. Allura’s eyes finally snapped open. Hurtling towards her present, the very very real looking ground. Yanking the back rotational gyroscope, Allura hoisted the ship level, but she still landed with a crash so violent she thought she was going to pop out of the windshield. 

After almost a varga of pushing against the stuck door, Allura heard a voice. 

“Do you need help?”

“Yes! I would love some. Do you think you can pull the exterior handles while I push?”

“Okay!”

Allura grunted against the panel until she heard metal give in. When she stumbled out onto the new planet, she took off her helmet; the ship described the conditions as oxygen rich. 

“Princess Allura? Daughter of King Alfor?” The woman staggered back. “You are just as legends say you are. I’ve only see the holographic newsreels of you, but those are 10,000 years old.” 

“What is your name?”

“Ketina.” The woman bowed. “I am the mayor of this village.” 

Allura tilted her head up to look at the woman. She was a mishmash of features. Her skin was a beautiful deep onyx, her eyes were emerald, and she had stripes of light tan running through her hair, which was tightly curled against her shapely head. Right under her jewel-like eyes, Ketina bore the Altean marks. She was stunning. 

“Where are you from?” 

“I’m from here, New Altea.” Ketina snorted, knowingly. 

“No, I mean, where are your parents from?”

“My father was Altean, my mother was from the star system Quibo.” Ketina took a moment to inspect Allura. “Tell me Princess, why was it so important to know exactly what my heritage is?”

Allura startled. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to offend.”

“I’m not offended. It’s just interesting to me how Alteans always have to know where I come from.”

Her hand twisted in her hair for a moment. “I’m sorry Ketina. Asking you where you’re from doesn’t mean I don’t implicitly take you as an Altean. It was rude of me to ask without getting to know you as an individual. It is simply none of my business other than satisfying a curiosity. I don’t know many half-Alteans.” 

“Thank you, Princess.” Ketina grinned at her, her teeth small and even. “Now, would you like to see the village? Maybe rest up since you did just have a near-death experience.”

“Village?”

“Ah yes. Prince Lotor must have not prepared you.”

Allura smiled to herself. He was here. 

“This is the most remote and secretive of the Altean colonies. We are unmapped, unincorporated, and we like that way. Some people in the main Colony know of us, but really we stay out of the way.” Ketina walked around Allura’s aircraft, examining the crash landing damage.

“Does everyone die, or see their entire lives flash before their eyes, before they get here?”

“Yeah, that’s the deal. The death tunnel is the only way to get here. When you return back to New Altea, you’ll experience your birth again. For many people, it is not an ideal way to travel. Too many emotions.” 

“It’s not exactly something you can advertise.” 

Allura noticed a braided white bracelet around Ketina’s wrist. It looked like it was made of pure white yarn, or hair. 

“How well do you know Prince Lotor?” 

“He’s my boss. I used to be his lieutenant.” Ketina snorted. “Well, he’s been retired for a while now. He told me that he was no longer my boss and that I should start making my own career.” 

“Oh.” Allura paused. “Prince Lotor likes to surround himself with female leaders. He finds them more effective and adaptive.”

“He’s not dumb.”

“That’s true.” She smiled in spite of herself. “Do you know where he is?”

“He’s on a mission.” 

“Ah. Does he go for these missions often?”

“No, he pretty much sticks to his library and his house.” Ketina cocked her head. “Is he expecting you?”

“It does not matter.” Allura decided to use her royal voice, couching herself was with air of command and untouchability. “He will see a Princess, regardless.” 

“Be my guest. If you’ve made it this far, then there’s reason enough that Prince Lotor has made it possible. I’m not here to judge.” 

“So, many people come to see him?” Allura suddenly lost confidence. 

“Princess, to say he’s a hermit is a understatement of the highest order. And if you’re asking if Prince Lotor has a consort, the answer is that he does not.” 

Allura suddenly felt the weight lift. Her spine became ramrod straight again. 

“How do I find his house?”

“He’s about two quintent’s hike from here, near Bowen’s Peak. You go due north for 40 kilometers. I’m sorry I have no vehicles to offer you. It’s kind of the way we keep this place. Minimal tech and stuff.” 

“So whenever you want to see Prince Lotor, you have to walk for two days?”

“He’s not into frequent visitors.” 

Ketina and Allura both heard her stomach growl. “Oh, excuse me.” 

“Princess, please have a meal with us.” Ketina smile was infectious. “We heard a little of the news of your arrival from New Altea, but we’re just a small village and we had no idea someone like you would even find us. My council is dying to meet you.” 

Allura found herself around a low table, ladened with the foods of New Altea, which tasted familiar and foreign to her at the same time. There were dishes of spiced meat-like drumsticks, greens that were bitter and sour, even a whipped rectangle thing which tasted sweet like Kaltnecker’s milkshake. Fixing herself a huge plate, Allura was blissfully gorging on everything. She settled into the comfortable settee and listened to the chatter in this village. 

“Another one, Allura?” Ketina passed her a shallow bowl, filled with frothing green foam that never seemed to empty. 

“This is delicious and I’m feeling so jovial!” Allura slapped Ketina heartily on the back, causing the Mayor to spit out her drink. Allura lifted the bowl to her face and drained the container in single gulp. 

“You are not what I imagined a Princess to be.” The woman to the right of Ketina said, glowing. “My name is Wo. I’m the treasurer.” 

“Ah, you wouldn’t know a Princess if she sat on ya.” The tall, slim creature to the left of Ketina flicked a food particle at Wo. 

“Stop it, Nyx!” Wo batted back at her. 

“Wo, Ketina, and Nyx.” Allura lifted her bowl to the server, who refilled the contents. “I’d like to get some answers.” 

Suddenly, Allura’s expression shifted. Her body metabolized intoxicants quickly. If the New Alteans thought they could just show get the Princess drunk without answering questions about their boss, Prince Lotor, then they had underestimated her. 

As her smile faded, her gaze fixed on the three women in front of her. 

“I am Allura of Altea, the last remaining regent of Altea. I come seeking services of fellow Alteans in the war against the Galran empire who would wipe us from this universe. Prince Lotor and I have worked together before.” She paused to see if any of them would react to this information. “And I’d like to be fully debriefed as we enter this new phase against the enemy. Especially since my return to New Altea was rather sudden. Will you help me, Lieutenants?”

“You’re very commanding, Princess.” Nyx said, admiringly. 

“I need to prepare us, our people, for what is to come. Ketina, I have to understand how the colonies work.” Allura narrowed her eyes. “How are we hiding in plain sight from Haggar? Did Lotor steal quintessence from us for generations? Why did everyone worship him? And why does the Alto council deny the existence of the second colony that Romelle told me about, the one that was drained of quintessence?” 

Ketina leveled her eyes with Allura. “Do you know why we are all on this planet, Princess?” 

Allura took a look around the table. 

“You’re all half-Alteans.” She spoke softly. “Did something happen in New Altea?”

Ketina laughed bitterly. “Yes. Something did happen. New Altea decided that it was an Altea meant for pure-bloods only. It was after the second colony disaster happened. The council said that the cost was too great to bear for half-breeds.” 

Allura shook her head. “But, Altea is a peaceful welcoming society to all.” 

Nyx snorted. “New Altea for Alteans. That was the slogan I grew up with. I was child when this started. I mean, people were nice enough to me to my face. But I had no chance on New Altea. No jobs, no breaks anywhere. I went to school like everyone else, and no would look at me seriously as an Altean. There were so many jobs had the prerequisite of “Full Altean Only” that I just stopped looking. ” 

“Maybe we should stop talking about this.” Wo glanced meaningfully at the others. “I’m sorry, Princess. We don’t have visitors very often and we don’t to trouble you with our domestic problems.”

“Who better to listen than Allura of Altea?” Nyx shot back. 

“We don’t know her at all. And she doesn’t even know any half-Alteans other than Prince Lotor!” 

“Your Highness, let’s discuss your objectives.” Ketina was trying to steer the conversation back on track. 

“No, Ketina.” Allura folded her hands thoughtfully. “This is part of what I’m looking for. I will listen and no punishment will come to my citizens who’ve done nothing wrong. I assure you. Wo, can you explain more?”

Wo stuck another glance at Ketina and Nyx, who both seemed preoccupied with their food at the moment. Squaring her shoulders, Wo began. 

“Princess, there is welcoming everyone and then there’s accepting people as part of your own. And New Altea couldn’t do it. The cost was too great.” Wo stirred her drink, examining the swirling green mess. 

“What does that mean? What are you talking about?” 

Ketina set her drink down and leaned forward. Her blazing green eyes were rimmed red. 

“Are you ready to hear the story of New Altea, Princess?”

Allura nodded. 

“Around 7,000 years ago, when Prince Lotor first began transporting the first colonials to New Altea, there were only dozens of us. His primary concern was keep us safe, out of the reaches of Zarkon. Zarkon declared genocide on the Alteans for the treachery of King Alfor’s destruction of Daibazaal. With only a few dozen survivors, this was easy. Hiding us beyond the Quantum Abyss was the first part, but he always feared that with the right protocol, eventually intelligent life would find a way to travel here. And he was right. So to properly shield us, Prince Lotor found a way to mix Altean quintessence with Galran deriboxynucleic acid. The only thing is that the shields were powered by quintessence. With a few dozen to protect, the early Alteans only need to donate a few drops to keep the shield functioning.” 

“But,” Ketina glanced at Allura. “We had a baby boom around the third millennia of the colony. The conditions on New Altea were particular good for centuries. Crops flourished. Wild life was abundant. Some of the Old Altean tech that were lost to time began emerging again when academies were established and the Ancients were able to curate a system of knowledge transfer. We had so many engineers who came out of that time. Prince Lotor was still bringing in refugees. But now, we’re at almost 6,000 years past the destruction of Altea and any Altean survivors had made lives in new star systems. Prince Lotor brought in people like my great grandparents, who were from completely different planets.” 

Ketina paused and made sure Allura was following along. Allura nodded. 

“But the baby boom had an unforeseen ripple effect, Princess. The workforce was bigger so we industrialized. We built the city of Alto that you saw. But this golden age had a dark side. More Alteans meant more of us were exposing ourselves. We’re became victims of our own success.” 

“Prince Lotor returned every century, checking in on conditions. He would spend all his time with the Ancients, talking about Old Altea because there was something he was searching for. When our population reached one million, Prince Lotor was at a loss with how to shield us. Our Altean numbers were simply too high. Too much of our quintessential energy was leaking into space and it was only a matter of time before Haggar would find us. The high council of Alto converged with Prince Lotor’s blessing. And that’s when the testing began.” 

Nyx snorted. “They didn’t even bother testing the mixed bloods, I guess that’s our blessing in disguise.” 

“They were testing Alteans with excessive quintessence?” Allura stared back at Ketina. 

“The high council, and Prince Lotor, agreed that the Alteans with the highest quintessence had to be shielded first. He agreed with the councils’ plans. If we are talking about the same Romelle who lost her brother in the second Colony, then I understand why she would warn you against Prince Lotor. He had to reassure people that the “colony” was safe. But Romelle was wrong about the worship. Prince Lotor was more like visiting scholar to New Altea. Sometimes, no one would even know that he was here. There might have been a few statues of him, but they’re gone now. He had them removed.” 

“So we drained our own people?”

“No, not quite. The council asked the people who tested for super high level of quintessence to take a cryosleep into consideration. But, it wasn’t really an ask. Their families would be rewarded with huge sums of money if they did it. The quintessence drain is a side effect of cryosleep. Even if we stop all of our body functions, we continue to make quintessence. Our bodies can’t stop making quintessence, if we do...we die.” 

“Did Prince Lotor collect the quintessence from cryosleep?”

“Yes. He did. It still is most concentrated quintessence in the known universe.” 

“And he used it?” Allura gripped her drinking bowl tightly. “That’s terribly immoral. He’s responsible for draining those people!” 

“Prince Lotor thought so as well. But he thought that the price of saving a million Alteans was worth having hundreds in cryosleep.” 

“I don’t agree at all.” Allura jerked upright. “Surely, there must be another way. All those people, not living, not dead! How can this be justified at all?”

“Of course not, Princess.” It was Wo’s turn now. “But that’s because you have the power to defeat Haggar. We did not. We didn’t have you. Prince Lotor was our only ally against the Galra, and he told us that if he were to fight her under the conditions of his current exile, he would lose, and then all Alteans would perish.” 

Allura swallowed a bitter pill. It was true. The Alteans were put into an impossible situation. She could start to see that Lotor had effectively made the best call with the worst choices he had. In a way, Lotor had succeeded beyond her wildest dreams. He created a thriving Altean world safe from the genocidal Galra. She could see how successful, how prosperous New Altea was. It struck her heart like no other place in the universe. She shook her head, something still wasn’t right. 

“What about the new cities on other planets? How did that happen?”

Wo intoned dangerously. “Well, there was wealth to be made now. So more Alteans signed up to be “shield-guardians” as they’re called. With that much excess quintessence to power shields, our high council saw no reason to stay small. They wanted to expand. And that’s how they established the four other cities with shield people who signed their lives away. But the second colony Romelle warned you about? That colony had a major malfunction in the the cryosleep system recently. A lot of people died. Including Romelle’s brother. When all those deaths happened two hundred years ago, we had a demagogue begin the “New Altea for Alteans” movement. He stated that since only real Alteans had amounts of quintessence or life blood to give to New Altea, there was no reason we should have the protection of the shields. Our blood was worth less.” 

Allura sighed heavily. This wasn’t like meeting the other Alteans in the other reality when they had brain-zombied everyone into peace. Those Alteans were clearly insane. 

These Alteans, however, these Alteans were her own people. Allura had experienced culture shock during the war. The strangeness of her Paladin’s earth customs were amusing to her. But in the time of war, these customs were easily put aside for the main objective. 

Allura thought hard. She had never experienced life as Nyx, Wo, or Ketina. To belong to a place but to be denied all the things that seem to be freely given to the others. She was sure in her Altean identity, it was a cornerstone of who she was. But if other Alteans that she dearly loved started to question her validity as an equal being, she would truly not know what to do. 

In a moment of deep shame, Allura realized that in Old Altea, there were never overtures to refugees or migrants. The racial purity of the Altean home world was something she had never considered to be a fault. She sighed, realizing that it was by design. Over centuries and millennia, she could see how easily something as good as “protecting our people” became could be perverted to the those who had the most to gain. 

“Is that why Lotor made this place?” Allura glanced at Nyx, Wo, and Ketina and noticed how the three of them softened at his name. 

“Yes,” Nxy shrugged. “After the New Altea for Alteans movement began electing official into government, we couldn’t live in the cities any more. We had to go where there were less people. Lotor noticed that we were missing and the high council explained that too much political pressure was against the mixed bloods. You can imagine how he reacted.”

“Stars.” Allura felt her heart sank. This was awful. She knew the incredible lengths Prince Lotor had to cross to be acknowledge as an Galran, even though he was the only blood heir to Zarkon. Even then, at the Kral Zera, every single Galra felt it their duty to challenge the half-blood Prince. His claim wasn’t even acknowledged until he beat Sendak into retreat and lit the flames himself. Allura clenched a fist against her thigh. 

She winced, remembering how reverentially he spoke about Altea. In being spurned from the Galra, she knew Prince Lotor looked to her people for identity, for a way to belong in this vast universe. New Altea became another burden, another group of people who got to know him and then rejected him because not because of who he was because of what he was. She felt sick. 

“Yes, Princess.” Wo snorted. “The very place he created to preserve Altea didn’t want him anymore.” 

“They’ll never say it to his face.” Ketina was harsh. “But you know when people are dishonest with you. The conversations always stop as soon as you walk in the room.” 

“I need a dobosh.” Allura felt a tightness in her chest. Sometimes, she felt so alone as the last Altean princess all those years before she discovered new Altea. But she always had Coran, the happy memories of her child hood, on a planet where her birthright was never challenged. She thought about Lotor living for millennias, caught between two worlds and without a single place to call his own. No wonder all his generals were mixed bloods and it made sense now that he would settle on this planet, filled with people like him. 

“I just wish he would have told me all this.” 

“If you pardon me, Princess.” Wo’s small head shook, “What are your intentions with Prince Lotor?”

“It’s personal.” Allura pressed her mouth closed. “I must be going now. It’s still daylight and I can make good time.” She gestured to the outside, “How many vargas of daylight?”

“Princess, you’ll be able to navigate at night as well. We have lume-flies. They’re fly very dense this time of year and you’ll be able see the path.” Nyx quickly drew a map for Allura and placed the folded paper into her hand. 

“I packed some rations for you.” Ketina gave her a small, efficient flatpack. “There’s water purifiers and enough energy bricks for three days. Although, I think you’ll find our water quite drinkable. There’s no industry on this planet.” 

“Thank you.” Allura faltered as she stepped outside the door. “I want you to know that I heard what you had to say, Nyx, Wo, and Ketina. I am the still the ruling monarch of Altea, including new Altea. As soon as this war is over, things will change. ”

Allura lifted her chin and nodded shortly to them. 

As the red sun set over the horizon, the glow of dying light brushed everything with a fiery copper edge. Allura looked at her skin, marveling how her brown skin looked burnished, like rubbed dark gold. Nyx was right. Clouds of lume-flies hovered thick above her. When she looked up, their sparkling green light looked like suspended fireworks, rushing into formation and out. Reaching her hand out, a few of the lume-flies landed on her hand and when their wings fluttered, more bioluminescence landed on her hand. Allura felt laughter bubble out of her. Her hands sparkled like diamonds in the night. 

“This place is amazing.” She murmured to herself. The day she spent here made her long for a life outside of a spaceship. She could have a family here, little silver-haired children running in and out of the meadows and hills. Allura chided herself, it was pointless to wish for things like that. She had to return to her paladins as soon as possible. 

After two quintent’s journey into the mountains, Allura found a clear lake, as blue as her eyes. She traced the map that Nyx made, and she realized that the lake was the only thing between her and Lotor’s house. Dipping her hands in the water, she tasted it--sweet, pure, and clean. Splashing the water on her face, she smoothed her sweaty brow and frowned at her reflection. She looked terrible, haggard after hiking for two solar cycles. 

Sneaking a quick glance around, with only the winds and birds as her companion, she had not seen anyone in two days. She stretched her arms, feeling the grit in her suit. Sunlight sparkled off the surface of the blue water and begged her to jump in. Allura shaded her eyes with her hand and peered at the mountain range close by, with soaring purple peaks capped by snow. She sighed and spun around. Surely, this was the most beautiful place she’d see since Altea. Would she ever have the chance do this again? 

A reckless smile spread across her face. She quickly stripped and dove in. Sinking in under the surface, she peered towards the sun, still shining through the water. Take a few kicks, Allura broke through the silvery surface. She treaded water, the silky weeds moving inbetween her legs. The water was cold and bracing. She hadn’t had a swam like this in ages. Floating on her back, she looked up at the blushing purple sky and breathed for the first time in months. Here, she was buoyant, cradled by the water. She could be here forever. Looking down at her body, beneath her breasts, and noticed the wide bruising cut she had survived from her fight was Haggar was shrinking. The huge gash was healing faster than she had ever seen. By the time she emerged from the water, all that remained of the wound was a dull ache, the flesh made smooth again. She stood on the edge of the water, letting the sun beat down on her skin, wringing the water out of her hair when she noticed that there was a figure in black walking away. 

“Lotor!”

“Yes, Princess.” He didn’t turn around. She made short work of putting on her suit, twisting her wet white hair into a presentable bun. His back was still turned. She ran towards him, arriving flushed and out of breath. 

“You can turn around.”

She drank in the sight of him. His gaze was steady but his expression remained passive. If he was affected by the sight of her naked body, he didn’t show it. Allura didn’t know what she was expecting. He looked so different. His long white hair had been buzzed into a short utilitarian haircut. He wore simple black. Allura felt light, like no time had passed between them. 

“You should not have come here, Princess.” His words, clipped. 

She had no idea what to say. All this time. All these years. After her conversation with Nyx, Ketina, and Wo, she wanted nothing more than to hear his account. She was too hasty when they battled in the rift. Both of their tempers strung to the extreme and they both made mistakes that were impossible to rectify. 

“I wanted to say--that I didn’t give you a chance to explain.” Allura started, her voice quiet and cracking. 

“I’ve arranged for your transport back. I do not have the time to accommodate a guest. This is most unfortunate. Have a good journey.” He bowed at the waist. Allura’s mouth quirked up, even while he was trying to get rid of her, Lotor still treated her like a princess. But when he turned to walk away, she felt anger coil in the pit of her stomach. How dare he? They were connected through so much more than family and battle. She shared so much with him. And he had betrayed her, by not trusting her. By giving her one small section of the truth.

“No. I am not leaving until I get some answers.” Lotor’s steps slowed down and she watched as his shoulders tensed. She remembered those his shoulders. How she stared at them when he piloted their first comet ships into the rift. How she would reached for them to steady herself. How the only time they made love, she hung onto the sleek muscles while he pounded himself into--

“Princess, what questions do you have?”

“Why are you saving me?” She blurted out. 

“Repayment. Oriande. The comet ships. You made it all possible for me and I do not want to be in your debt any longer.” 

Allura watched the back of his head, trying to decipher the cryptic tone in his voice. Why wouldn’t he look at her?

“Look at me.” Allura gave her best command voice. His back stiffened, but when he turned around, he looked more amused than angry. 

“My second question is, how did you survive the rift?”

“I was born into quintessence. I am immune to its effects.” He gave her a banal look, like she was stupid for asking. She narrowed her eyes at him and the next question snapped out of her. 

“My third question, why did you try to kill me?”

“Why did you try to kill me?” His eyes flared with emotion for the first time. “I held fire as long as long as I could.” 

“I--I--you did the one thing that all Alteans fear, that we’d be drained for our quintessence.” Her voice shook, but Allura squared her shoulders and stared back at him, flint in her eyes. 

“I was wrong. I thought I held the cards that would change the tides of war. I thought you were the only thing standing between me and peace for the universe. I thought sacrifices had to be made. The few for the greater good. I made a miscalculation.” Lotor fisted his hands in his pockets. “I must go now, Princess. Have a safe journey back.” 

“My fourth questions! What is the purpose of the second colony?” 

Allura’s breath was shallow, her heart was pounding so fast. Everything she felt about him came down to what he was going to say next. 

“The second colony was a project I agreed to with the Alto high council, a plan to conceal the Alteans with the highest quintessence quotient. They enter cryosleep and their quintessence drained to maintain the safety of New Altea.”

“What about Romelle’s story? Bandor’s escape from the second colony?”

“Her brother died.” He looked at soberly. “I don’t blame her for wanting to punish someone. I am a reasonable candidate.” 

Allura searched his face, there was only a slight tremor at his jaw line. She wished for King Alfor’s wisdom, to find the scales of justice tiling wrong or right. But there were so many different arguments on all sides. Her thoughts churned, bringing up pain and conflict, until she finally had a cogent moment. 

“Prince Lotor.” Her voice was low, but powerful. “You don’t have any more debt to me. I absolve you.” 

He bowed deep. 

“Thank you, Princess.” 

As he walked away, Allura felt her chest sink. There was too much blood between them. She watched his figure disappear and thought about a play that Pidge and Hunk used to re-enact. An earth play about Romeo and Juliet, about two young lovers from families who hated each other. Their happiness would never seal the rift from the families, but their death did. Allura shook her head. There was much too much important work to do than to daydream about romantic teenagers who didn’t have the weight of a rebellion behind them. Thousands of lives, millions of planets, and paladins that she loved like family. 

In a few more doboshes, the transport shuttle exhaust blew across the grass, rippling the blades like water. Allura looked up at the aircraft, a black box against the brilliant sunlight. Tendrils of hair escaped from her bun and whipped in front of her face. After she got in, she pressed her face to the window. She was searching for Lotor as the aircraft rose into the sky. There was a stone path leading back to a small house. It snaked around a glossy green hill. But there was no trace of Lotor. She closed her eyes. She hoped to never see him again. 

Allura pressed her sleeve to her eyes when she realized that the tears would not stop coming. She was like a dam unplugged. She wiped her face and remembered where she was, an impossible world rescued 7,000 years ago. Instead of fighting the enemy, she was fighting for a home to return to. 

“Thank you, Prince Lotor.” She choked back her words.

* * *

Author's Note: I'm fired up to publish chapter 4. Let me know what you think! Comments make the publishing updates come faster :P

**CHAPTER FOUR - THE BATTLE OF MAZZAXY**

_Four Decaphebs After the Rift_

“Lotor! Wait, please!”


	4. THE BATTLE OF MAZZAXY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lotor comes back

**CHAPTER FOUR - THE BATTLE OF MAZZAXY**

_Four Decaphebs After the Rift_

“Lotor! Wait, please!” 

Allura found herself running after the Black sincline. 

Team Voltron were in a skirmish over the Mazzaxy rebel region. The Mazzaxies had gone underground, literally, since Haggar’s Galra empire went on the offensive. Their planet was a featureless one, and had all the appearance of being uninhabited. Allura and the paladins had been embedded with them for months until a security breach exposed them to Haggar’s informants. Mazzaxy had been stockpiling an incredible valuable amount of quintessence corruption device that would deal a heavy blow to Haggar’s forces if they could only be used. The Mazzaxy rebels and the paladins took heavy fire for quintents until Pidge figured out a way to reactivate the planetary shield. But even with the shield in place, Allura found herself rushing to the surface to combat the sentries who managed to land before the shields activated. She had to prevent Haggar’s forces from penetrating the surface and finding the true weapon that the Paladins were hiding. 

She and Hunk flew Blue and Yellow below the stratosphere for almost eight vargas before she realized that they couldn’t prevent all the Galra sentry from penetrating the surface. They had to go to the ground. Half of the paladins were underground, prepping the transport of the quintessence corrupting weapon, while Allura, Hunk, and Keith had to remain above ground. She had never felt more like a general than at this moment.

“Allura, the shields are losing power!” 

“What do we do Pidge?”

“You have to get to the generator. Refill it with quintessence, or else I’ll be offline in thirty doboshes and all of the Galra will be at our doorstep!”

“Keith, take the Mazzaxies rebels and follow me!”

“Do we have the quintessence?”

Allura nodded. After her trip to New Altea, Allura secured enough concentrated quintessence for situations exactly like this. 

Keith, Hunk, and Allura boarded their Lions and their large machine cats sprinted to the shield generators buried deep in the mountains. The Mazzaxy mountain range was particularly treacherous, its valleys prone to crumbling away when the slightest pressure was exerted. 

Following the Mazzaxy general’s lead, the three of them landed like a pin drop on the generator building. Keith was the first out of his lion, followed by Hunk, and when Allura finally joined them, there was already a fray. She saw Galra soldiers, who had somehow gotten the intel on the Mazzaxie security system, being hurled left and right from a single point she couldn’t see clearly. There was already someone at the center at fray, taking out the Galra soldiers. 

“Allura, you gotta keep them away from that cave mouth.” Keith pointed. “I have the quintessence. Hunk, you and Allura got this.” 

With a beep, Keith’s Blade of Marmora mask clicked in and his body disappeared. 

“Do we want to get in on this, Allura? Kind of looks like it’s being taken care of already.” 

“I agree. Let’s see who’s doing the fighting.”

Three more Galra soldiers were knocked on their asses when the dust settled. But the moment of calm was just the eye of the storm. As soon as the Galra Major General spotted both Hunk and Allura, the maelstrom flooded towards them in a flurry of purple and fur. After years of prolonged fighting, Hunk and Allura developed a fighting style together. She was the blunt force and Hunk finished the fight with finesse. Sometimes, Hunk would simply hold her arms as she spun out and used her powerful legs to disarm the enemy. 

“On your left!” She hear and her heart sped up. No way. It couldn’t be. 

Allura narrowly ducked a laser beam aimed at her head as Hunk stared in shock. 

“Omigod, Allura. He’s back.”

She knew exactly who he was. 

“Hunk, we have to keep that perimeter Galra free, or we are screwed. Stop staring and complete the mission!”

“Allura, Hunk, I have bad news.” Keith’s voice buzzed inside their helmets. 

“The security system isn’t going to hold. We have to figure out another way.” 

“Keith, there’s no other way!”

“I have to get in there, Allura!” 

“Go Hunk, go! I’ll be okay, I’ve got Lotor.”

Allura ran ahead of Hunk with her bayard and cleared a path for the yellow paladin to reach the cave mouth. She stood at the opening, her eyes and body glowing with the alchemy she hadn’t felt in years. 

Waves after waves of Galra soldier rushed towards her. Closing her eyes, Allura felt herself leave her body and take view of her surroundings from above. Her corporeal body was still on the ground, but now she fought like she was three different people, with eyes everywhere. 

“Good day for a fight, Princess.” She heard his voice from behind her. 

“Same to you.” She gritted her teeth and braced her bayard against a Galran broadsword swung by a massive soldier. Before the thing could even attempt her direction, Lotor cut off the the giant’s arms at the socket. 

“They all fight the same way, Princess.” She could hear his voice beneath all the din, like the two of them were humming along the same frequency. His tone was as cool as water. “When they’re attacking, their stance is the weakest and that is when you must strike.”

Allura bite her lips as she copied Lotor’s exact movements. He was efficient, rarely exerting force until necessary. Her shoulder became looser, and she changed her stance, the bayard becoming an extension of her arm, as fluid and deadly as a cobra strike. 

“Lotor!” Allura ducked under and broke the shinbones of a soldier holding an ion spear, the intended target was Lotor’s chest. The spear fell to the wayside. Lotor gave a brief nod before leading the fight away from her. 

“What are we doing now, Keith?” Allura yelled into her comm. 

“Hunk here. Allura we’ve gotta way to transport the weapons outta Mazzaxy. We have to take this chance. The shields are way too deteriorated, even with the quintessence.”

“Alright, you hear that, Pidge?” 

“Copy that. Initiating evacuation commands in three...two....” 

Allura felt the beginning tremors of the blast before she saw it. With only a tick to spare, she sprinted towards Lotor, and grabbed him tightly around the waist. While they were rooted into place, the mountain range collapsed around them, exploding into a rain of hot ash. Allura held her hands up, she created an negative ion field that wrapped around both her and Lotor’s body. The Galra forces on the ground were swept away by the blast like a little kid clearing toy soldiers off a table. 

She could feel Lotor’s breathing, his chest heaving. As she looked up at his black glass mask, she wanted to see something more than her own reflection.

“We’re leaving.” Allura nodded. With a quick whistle, Blue came through the dust storm, settling down and opening its mouth for her and Lotor to run inside. They were both covered in a thick layer of dust as she sat down to pilot, Blue. Switching on the comm and her engines, Blue soared into the Mazzaxy atmosphere a tick before a quarter of the planet caved in. 

She could feel Lotor looking at her and she turned to grin at him. He was quiet. After a few more doboshes, she spotted the castle from New Altea. She landed on the flight deck, her cargo bay creaking open, and as she thought about what she was going to say to Lotor, he abruptly got out of his seat, the thrusters in his boots propelling him in a dobosh to the Black sincline which seemed to have followed them. 

“Lotor! Wait, please!”

Lotor was leaving again. The black sincline engines fired up with the purple flare of quintessence and hovered for a few ticks. He would be gone and Allura had no idea when she would see him again. Allura muttered a pile of curses before the thrusters on her boots kicked in and flung her into the closing cargo bay doors. In another dobosh, she would have been crushed by the steel plates. 

She landed hard on the sincline’s metal floor, knocking the breath out of her. Rolling up with a groan, she turned on her helmet lights to navigate. The ship boosted again and soon, they were in FTL speed. There was no way off his ship now. Now he would have to talk to her. 

Unlocking her helmet, Allura walked steadily towards the cockpit. She glanced around at the ship, the consoles were familiar, the layout, even the switches. On the starboard side of the ship, she pressed a hidden panel and a compartment emerged. With a few quick keystrokes, the airlock to the cockpit hissed open. 

She saw his shock of silver hair before she saw him. 

“Hello, Princess.” 

She took another step. He turned around in his pilot seat, his mask still flickering on and off. He tapped the button near his ear and took it off. His eyes had slight crinkles at the corners. Swallowing hard, Allura made her way towards Lotor-- she was expecting him to be hostile or perturbed, but he just crooked a half smile at her. 

“Why do you keep saving me? Your debt has been more than paid.” 

“Yes, that was an excuse. But it’s not always about you, Princess.” He tapped in few codes on the console and gestured to her to sit. 

“I’m waiting.” 

“I’ve only helped when it was necessary, Princess. I had some intel that you’ve found the first significant weapon against Haggar.”

“How did you know?”

“In exile, you learn how to get by on very little information. I’m not just saving you. I know you’re the key to changing the tide in this war. For 10,000 years, I’ve tried to find ways around this empire. To save it, to reinvent it, to destroy it. I think I’ve tried every permutation. Of course, except you.” 

He looked away for a second. He reached under his controls and Lotor proffered a crinkly package and set it in front of Allura. She looked at the package dubiously. He took foil packet and bit of the corner with his right fang and a sugary smell rose up to meet her. Allura sighed as she sipped the replenishing packet.

“How did you know I was starving?”

“Your Lion’s been there for four quintents.” He paused and glanced at her, with her eyes closed inhaling her nutrient pack. “I suppose that dismissing you on my planet was not the answer you’re looking for. And if I know you at all, I realize now that I’m going to explain myself now so you’ll never have to come back here, Princess.” He drummed his fingers on arm rest. 

“I don’t mind seeing you.” She grumbled. This all felt so normal, as rare as the circumstances were; that she would fight well with Lotor and that they would always rescue each other. And now, his concerned food offering just felt right. She snorted a little, amused by the thought of how this was the closest thing she had to a date in ages. Food and an activity. There was food, the nutrient pack, and there was an activity, the war at large. 

“Ah.” He pressed his lips together and gave her a firm nod. “That is good.”

“So,” she finished her packet. “Why do you keep saving me?”

“After our battle in the rift, I had a few quintents of fighting with the rift monster. I almost depleted myself of quintessence, even though I was surrounded by it, fighting the monster. In the end, I didn’t defeat the interdimensional beast, but at least I found a way to out run it. I crash landed on what was left of Daibazzal. I scavenged for a while. And I found myself on a city that was older than the Galra. It was the civilization that had come before. It’s funny to think that the Galra have always assumed that they were the only living beings on Daibazaal, but it wasn’t true.” 

“What did you find?” Allura leaned in and he shifted back. 

“Stone tablets. I never thought to research the Galra because I was raised as a Galran. I never questioned the things I was taught, but learning about the people who came before gave some perspective. They had a legend of a Light-Bringer who destroyed the world before it could be made again.” 

“Like Sendak’s fire of purification?”

“I hope not.” He shook his head. “In the text, I think the word ‘destroy’ also means ‘to change fundamentally.’ This Light-Bringer is someone who creates choices that didn’t exist before. She who creates choices that do not exist.” 

“It’s a she?”

“It should always be a woman. Women can create and destroy in the same breath.” He glanced at her carefully, “She has a companion as well. Her companion is her opposite, someone who makes sure that everything stays the same. He enters the world to prolong the world.” 

“What do you think it means?” Allura blinked. 

“I was corrupted by quintessence from birth. I shouldn't have been allowed into Oriande, but I was. I’m understanding my role in this. And it’s to make sure that you stay alive. I stay alive to make sure you stay alive for long enough to change all of this. I think you’re the Light-Bringer.” 

“Stars, I do not want another title. Princess Allura of Alfor of Altea is quite enough.” 

“It’s not a title, Princess. It’s a destiny. You’re able to make both of our dreams into reality.”

“So you’re using me again.” 

Lotor winced. She watched his mouth set into a tight line. He hesitated. 

“That is true. Princess, I’m not sure what to do here. You are instrumental to defeating Haggar. She’s perhaps your greatest enemy.” He laughed to himself. “Other than me. However, Princess. I don’t need you to trust me. I think it’s better if you don’t.” 

“What of the Galra empire?”

“Empires rise and fall, Princess. The Altean one did. Now it’s time for the Galra empire to fall.” His eyes darkened. “Princess, do you have your coordinates? I’ll take you to your ship.”

Allura bite her tongue. She wanted to shake him and yell, ‘What about me?’ 

“In the Andromeda quadrant.” 

They rode in companionable silence for several doboshes. Allura tried to keep her eyes ahead, but her neck always seemed to know exactly what she wanted. He wore a long sleeve black armor, but the right side had been torn off during the skirmish. She saw the red scars of the rift creature running like canyons in his skin. Allura’s eyes drifted over his face, she never had the luxury of time to dwell on strong curve of his jaw, his neck, the broad planes of his body. With his hair shorn close to his head, she finally got a good look at his ears. If they had all the time in the world, Allura would sit his lap and trace the lines of his arms until--

“Princess?”

“I was just thinking about my childhood.” Allura turned herself back to the interstellar plains stretching to infinity in front of her. “I grew up in a castle and I was part of the royal family. Not a lot of people understand what that means.” She glanced at Lotor, but he was quiet, waiting for her to go on. 

“To grow up as a symbol. It makes everything more complicated. What you do is what you are, but what you don’t do is also what you are. I found myself in trials that I could not have born the weight if it weren’t for my father and my mother. And I think about you sometimes. That you were also a Prince, but that Haggar and Zarkon were not--I’m not sure what they were to you...” 

She halted, unsure of how to continue. Lotor’s eyes fixed on her lips. She wiped her mouth nervously, tasting the juice that was sticky on her mouth. 

Allura wanted to reach across the console and wind her fingers with his. She wanted to talk about the moment on the ground, when his voice spoke in her mind. She took a deep breath. “My father was tough on me, but he loved me dearly. I don’t know who I would be without him. Everything that he gave me. Every value that he instilled. He placed this sense of wonder and justice in me, that I’m always searching to match.” 

“Yes, King Alfor was an incredible man.”

“And you are that match.” 

She saw Lotor swallow hard. He eased his hands off the control of the ship, turning to her, his eyes burning like a blue gas flame. Oh yes, please look at me, Allura felt exulted. She felt a rush of warmth as he regarded her, his hands tight against his knees. 

“Why do you stay away? I need your help. I could always use your help. You’re the one who always said that you couldn’t do it without me.” Her voice trembled. 

“Are you sure about that Princess? Our last alliance ended rather disastrously.” 

She laughed in spite of herself. 

“You won’t? Even if a Princess of Altea is begging you.”

Lotor’s jaw clenched. She saw him working the issue over in his brain, his eyes downcast. He finally reached over to Allura, his hands closing over hers. Allura finally relaxed. It was the first time that he had intended to touched her in years, barring the time he threw himself over her body to protect her from Haggar’s bomb. She flushed, deep and pink. There was no one that affected her bodily like this. No one except Lotor. He was so close. She sighed and breathed him in, his scent calmed her, the note of spice that was distinct Galran and Lotor. She felt like a cat, she wanted to rub her cheeks against him, to curl her body as a paliable companion to him. She looked at his strong fingers, the palms callused with weapon use, the veins running through like rivers on a map. She wanted to trace all of it, to let her hands do the the talking, to let her fingers speak volumes she didn’t dare to say. 

“Princess.” He was looking down at her hands too. “I have done too much to you. I do not expect forgiveness. I can assist here and there, but, I cannot fight by your side. I have much to do, as well.” 

Allura saw drops of water land on his hand and immediately, Lotor’s hand cupped her cheek, wiping the tears away. She could hear him whisper quietly, “No, Princess.” 

“I don’t know if anything I’ve done is right. Calling the paladins. Forming the coalition. Destroying the castle, finding the castle. Even calling on New Altea. I’ve been so wrong, Lotor.” Allura sniffled. “Huge mistakes. Actions that I can ask for forgiveness, but I don’t think I can ever atone.” 

His eyes didn’t move from her face, but Allura didn’t dare look at him. 

“Allura, there are many things during war that cannot be brought into peace time.” Lotor rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. “I sometimes think that even if the war was won, my mistakes are too many for me not to be punished by both sides.” 

“Remember when you told me about that mining colony?” 

He nodded. She smiled weakly at the memory of Oriande, a time that seemed to be bathed in rosy nostalgia, a time before they were so complicated to each other. 

“You were devastated by all those people that Zarkon wiped away, but I said that at least you stood up for those people. I don’t know how I could have been that naive. If I had seen an entire planet of friends dying in front of my eyes, I don’t think I would ever be able to forget. It wouldn’t matter at all if I tried. It would only matter that I failed.” She swallowed hard. “I think I’m beginning to understand a little more.” 

“Losing that planet made me more determined than ever that Zarkon had to end. He destroyed people who had done nothing wrong, but only to punish me.” His face was set in stone. “But the moment I struck him down, I was left with nothing, Princess. He was still my father.” 

For the first time, Allura noticed how old Lotor was, his eyes had exhaustion lines that were finally etched into his skin even though his face was still smooth and youthful. It was always in the eyes. His blue eyes were bloodshot and Allura felt a whisper of worry. She had really never seen him this tired before. 

“Last year, Krolia, Keith’s mother was embedded with another Galra sector deep into Myconian theater of war. The coalition had suffered heavy losses. We were pushed to the brink in that sector, not enough power, not enough soldiers. We were fleeing for our lives and I thought we were going to lose it all together. But Keith went on a rescue mission for Krolia and it all went so very wrong. The paladins and I--.” Allura collapsed her face into her hands. “We were there too late. I barely got Keith out in time but I gave the command to leave Krolia. Haggar’s ships came in and vaporized the whole planet. Keith never forgave me. And that’s going to be my cross to bear, I let her die.” 

“No she didn’t die.” Lotor’s voice was warm and deep. 

“She couldn’t have survived.” 

“No, I don’t mean that she’s still physically present, but that Krolia would have never allowed Keith to be in danger if she could give her own life for him. Galran mothers always put their offsprings life over their own.” 

“Oh.” 

“You did exactly what she would have wanted.” He squeezed her fingers. 

“I’m so alone, Lotor.” She shut her eyes. “This war is long and hard. And I need--”

Before she could explain, Lotor rushed to her seat, kneeling before her, holding her face like a fallen petal. He pulled her close, flush with his body. She hooked her chin over his shoulder, sighing deep and long. The breastplate in both their armored suits was preventing the feeling she wanted, his heart beating against hers. She wanted him so much, there was so few things in the universe that felt as right as Lotor did. 

“Was that okay?” He looked at her, his eyes wide. “I’ve never given one before.” 

Allura felt her entire face lift. “That was your first hug?”

Lotor nodded solemnly. Allura grinned at him. “It was good. But this is better.” Wrapping her hands behind his head, Allura drew his silver head to her. She could see his pupils were dilated, the blue iris only a thin ring. She glanced at his mouth for a tick before she claimed him. Allura crushed her mouth against his, her lips moving with agonizing slowness, her fingers digging into his hair. She let the rich taste of her prince fill her mouth and her nose, his mouth was wet and hot as hers. 

He tasted like good manna, an earthy salt, the last fumes of an empty can of quintessence. 

Allura’s heart was beating like a jackhammer, her blood rushing towards her face. She felt like molten fire, with only Lotor’s touch keeping her from bursting at the seams. Her tongue licked his lips lightly, tracing the sharp points of his teeth, before she bit his lower lip. He growled against her mouth, cupping her head in his large hands, his claws lightly pricking her scalp. She whined like a kitten when Lotor finally broke the kiss. 

He pulled himself up and sat back down in the pilot seat. 

“I’m sorry, Princess.”

“No. I’m not sorry.” Allura looked at him, his mouth puffy, and with her all over him. 

“You’re already in the most danger you’ve ever been. If we, if we become...I won’t be a pawn to be used by my mother against you.” His voice cooled considerably, but Allura noticed that his breathing was still uneven. They sat for a few more moments in silence. Allura wanted to scream at him. She felt herself digging her nails into the armrest of the co-pilot seat. She sighed and leaned back. The bleakness of what he said finally sank in. 

“You’re right.” She got up as the sincline started its descent through the atmosphere. 

She clicked on her helmet and walked towards the opening cargo bay. 

“Don’t come after me anymore.” She said without turning around.

* * *

_Author's Note: Chapter 5 is gonna be a doozy! I hope everyone's ready. Drop me some comments, I really appreciate them._


	5. THE LAKE

_Ten decaphebs after the rift_

Allura gritted her teeth. These were dark days in the war against Haggar. She had lost hope so many times only to find narrow escape through allies that were hidden, allies who had changed sides, or sometimes, pure luck. Her breathing was labored. The last ten quintents of nonstop fighting had taken it out of the paladins and her. Pidge had grown her hair long, there was no time to cut it, and Allura taught her a braid style that kept it out of the way. Hunk’s body seemed endlessly suited to war, but he too started losing his soft edges. Keith tied his hair back, in the way of the samurai in Shiro’s old movies, and Lance had a scar, from his temple down to his jaw. They were all not children anymore. Ten years after the rift, they were all older, wiser, and a bit harder. 

“Ugh.” She winced as she looked down the length of her legs. After taking on a legion of sentries, she was backed against an upper deck that hung 200 meters in the air over the belly of the Galra ship. One of the sentries had gotten the best of her, and she fell backwards, to the long drop down below. When she landed, the pain was a punch that shook through her body. It was like she died for just a split second. 

Even though Keith had managed to pull her out and everyone made it back to the New Altea castle safely, her leg was still broken in three places. It would take months to heal and she didn’t have the luxury of time. Allura pushed herself, in her full hip cast, off the side of the table, reaching for the latest report from Kolivan. 

“Sit down, Princess.” Coran’s had turned into full nanny mode. 

“I can’t just sit here.” Allura yelped immediately as her body twisted and she lost control. “We’re losing ground in the Hiron quadrant, the coalition needs us. We need to form Voltron and take the fight there.” 

“Just a quiznaking second, Princess. You can’t walk. You can barely go to the bathroom by yourself. You definitely can’t form Voltron.” 

“Oh Coran! How embarrassing!” She flushed. “Surely, there must be some Altean magic for fixing injuries like this. I have the life-healing force from Oriande, why can’t I heal myself?”

“I don’t know much about the alchemy Princess, but it seems as if a wounded Alchemist simply isn’t at her full powers. That might be why you’re healing like a normal Altean.”

“Then we have to find Lotor.” She spat out the name. She had sworn not to involve him anymore in her fight against Haggar. And she hadn’t spoken about him to anyone in decaphebs. And he hadn’t appeared again. In the seconds before she fell off that upper deck, her heart had a moment where it hoped against hope that he would appear, catch her in his arms with a wry smile and a “good day for a fight, Princess.”

“What? What does Prince Lotor have to do with this?”

“I need the lake near his house.” Allura breathing was still ragged, the pain pulsing behind her retinas like a flashing alarm. “This war depends on Voltron, and if I can’t form it with the paladins, then we’ve lost.” 

A quintent later, Allura sat on the Blade of Marmora transporter towards New Altea. Kolivan hadn’t raised an eyebrow when she requested the QA transporter again and for that, she was grateful. She explained it to Coran clearly enough, that she was going to New Altea for rehab, but her self-consciousness about seeing Lotor was weighing on her. Was she really going for herself? It had been six years since she had last seen him and part of her wanted to make sure that he was live. She felt the rocket boosters start combustion; the energy reaction shook through the nuts and bolts of the vehicle. She groaned. The transporter was the quickest way to get there, but she still had the endure the brutal take-off and landing. The giant container ship wasn’t meant for comfort. Coran had given her an old Altean sleeping remedy and she took it, hoping that she would wake up in New Altea. 

Her dreams were terrifying. Allura woke up gasping for air. The war was seared into her brain now. There were truly things she could never forget, no matter how much she tried. Her body ached to the bone and Allura wished for nothing more than to heal and to be strong. She had to be strong. For her people, for the paladins, for every planet that had pledged themselves to her coalition. 

When the ship finally docked on New Altea, Allura was greeted by one distant cousin, Alex, who took one look at her and rushed a team of New Altean doctors over to her. Allura waved them off, she told Alex exactly what she wanted, a spare shuttle. 

After she had set the coordinates towards the missing part of the universe where Lotor was, Allura felt a strange sense of deja vu. After all, she had done all of these things before. Her shuttle floated in the pitch blackness, and she waited for her shuttle to go into manual shut down. She felt none of the panic that she did the first time, and instead, she squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the death tunnel. 

This time, Allura knew how to stick the landing on the little planet. Her transporter set down with the tiniest scrap on the ground and she waved to Ketina, who was already waiting for her at the landing pad. Pushing herself up, Allura swung her crutches and pressed the cabin release button, the door swinging open to Ketina’s grinning face. 

“Back so soon, Princess?” Ketina’s smile immediately faded when she saw Allura’s condition. 

“Princess, what has happened?”

“Ketina.” Allura gestured for Ketina to come towards her, and she leaned heavily her. “The war is not going well.”

Ketina was silent for a second. 

“It’s always darkest before morning.” Ketina’s voice was soothing. “I’m glad you landed much closer to Prince Lotor’s house. I can’t imagine you making it over there in your condition.” 

“I need the lake.” Allura said flatly. They were only about half a day’s walk from where she remembered Lotor’s house was, but in her condition, it would take nearly a full day to get there. 

“I will call Prince Lotor for help.”

“Thank you.” 

Ketina guided Allura to a soft mossy bank where she could lay down comfortably. Allura felt the red sun of the planet beating down on her again. All she could think about was how she could finally let down her guard, if only for few doboshes. She blocked the sun from her face with her hand but she still could see the purple dome of the sky stretching above. Beyond her hand, she could see the jagged white peaks of the nearby mountain range, rising majestically on the horizon. Something about this place always made her felt like she could unwind. 

“What is the name of this planet?”

“I thought you knew.” Ketina spoke into her comm. “Come in, Prince Lotor, I know you said not to disturb you until an emergency, but this is an emergency.” 

“Copy. Send me your location.” 

Ketina turned back towards Allura, who appeared to have fallen asleep in the sun. “Prince Lotor calls this planet, Lura.” 

In a short varga, Lotor walked into a view. Ketina glanced up at him. The prince was gazing at Allura, with a rare moment of unguardedness. Ketina looked away, it was definitely too private for another person to be watching. 

“Thank you Ketina.” Prince Lotor kneeled next to Allura. “I’ll take it from here.” 

Ketina nodded and walked away, vowing not to turn around. 

Lotor had a brief moment of weakness as he hoisted her up in his arms. Allura was in a deep sleep, her featured relaxed and incredibly young. But Lotor’s saw all of it. The fresh new scar near her hairline, the faint crease at the bridge of her nose because she’d been squeezing it out of stress, the undeniable bags under her eyes. Allura was worn thin. 

Making time quickly, Lotor tried to keep his gait steady so that she wouldn’t wake up. When she stirred or mumbled something in her sleep, he stopped for a short second until she fell asleep again. Finally, the lake was within sight. Lotor sighed. Laying her down on the bank near the cattails, Lotor took off his shirt and went back to the sleeping princess. 

“Allura.” He shook her shoulders. 

“No, it’s a dream.” Her eyes were squeezed shut and she shook her head in a scowl. “You’re not Lotor.”

“Allura, please wake up.” 

Suddenly, she snapped awake and sat up in a tick. The sun glowed behind him and set his hair in a golden blaze. Allura tamped down her excitement, but it was so much--seeing him again, being this close, and after so many years. Her mouth was dry and she felt bombarded by Lotor. Here he was in the flesh, half-naked, and looking at her with great attention. She cracked a grin. “In my dreams, you’re usually not wearing clothes, either.” 

“Come.” Lotor knelt in front of her and presented her his back. “Get on, you’re no condition to swim.” 

Allura looked a the expanse of his naked figure, the muscles delineating his broad wingspan and his strong neck. He had grown his hair out again. She gulped. Being that close to Lotor, could she do it without upsetting this delicate balance that they had forged? 

“You grew your hair back.” 

“Yes, Princess.” His voice was so polite it was almost chilly. 

Her heart sped up as soon as she wrapped her forearms around his neck. She felt his arm gently grab her thighs and hitch her over his hips. 

 

“How’s the cast?”

“It’s fine.” But her breath caught in her throat as soon as he moved. She winced and hoped he didn’t notice. 

“Princess, your body is very bad shape.” He looked straight ahead, without turning to her. Allura caught the scent of his hair and it took all her efforts not to try burrowing herself into the strands. 

“I decided to come here because I couldn’t afford the healing time.” She said, glum. “My leg is broken in three places and I have to be at the Hiron quadrant in three quintents.”

“Okay, ready?” He was at the water’s edge, the water was at his hip and she could feel the wetness at her feet. Allura gripped tighter around his neck as an affirmative and took in a deep breath. In a quick smooth motion, he dove underneath the surface of the water with Allura riding him like a dolphin. Allura laughed at the image in her head. Clinging to his neck as Lotor dove deeper and deeper, Allura could still feel the warmth of his body through her wet flightsuit. He was a very adept swimmer, the muscles of his back flexing and straining every time his arms swept in a smooth arc, deeper towards the dark waters. 

As soon as she entered the silvery lake, her muscles loosened and she could feel the magic of the water infusing every cell. Underwater, with the golden reflection of the sun was the ceiling of their watery jewel box, Allura felt her heart swell. This was a place of unparalleled beauty. Lotor carefully unwound her arms and brought her around to face him. He held her next to him as he treaded water for doboshes, meters from the surface. 

Allura’s eyes were open, the water was so clear. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from Lotor, his hair fanning out in bloom behind him. His expression was hard to read, but his arms gestured for her to try to kick her legs. Allura nodded and flexed her broken leg experimentally. There was still a dull ache, but her leg started moving on its own, without the jagged pain of healing bones. When she looked back at him, her face broke out into a dazzling smile and a group of air bubbles escaped from her nose because she was so giddy. Lotor peered up towards the glowing sun and grabbing her around the waist, they both broke the surface together. 

“Stay next to me.” Lotor grabbed her waist and used the buoyancy of the water to carry her bridal style in the water as he treaded water with his strong legs. “Your flight suit is probably much heavier in this water. I can’t have you drowning.” 

“What is this place, Lotor.” Allura asked in awe. She blinked the lake water out of her face and Lotor came into focus--the drops of water dripping down his face, his neck and his chest. His lips were wet. Allura felt a twinge in her belly. The sun reflecting off each droplet like he was covered in sparkling diamonds. She sighed contently. After all, he always exceeded her fantasy. 

“Do you want more time in the water?” Lotor scrutinized her. “It looks like you regained mobility in your leg, but there might me much more bruising and hemorrhaging you haven’t told me about.” 

“No, I can come out.” Allura nodded. 

He dropped his arms and Allura swam awkwardly to the shore in her flight suit. As she reached the banks, Lotor was right behind her. Allura started unzipping her flight suit, but then she glanced in his direction, not wanting to make him uncomfortable. Allura was fine with her nudity, but there was a lot that she was trying to balance with Lotor. They were at a detente. She wanted him and he refused. She opened her mouth to say something but no words came out. Allura didn’t quite know what to say. 

“Please come with me. I’ll find you a change of clothes. And you should probably sleep. The healing is powerful, but it can often make you tired.” Lotor gestured towards the small path of smooth round stones, that she had only seen from the flight shuttle when she left this planet last time. 

“This is truly amazing.” Allura marveled at her leg, she kicked it back and forth, and her entire body felt completely new. “What is it about this planet that has such healing powers?”

“I’m not sure, Princess.” He was quiet again but restless. She watched his hands fidgeting by his side. Allura wanted to rebut that he always got to the bottom of everything. There was no mystery he didn’t like to unravel and it was highly unlikely that he didn’t know why the planet was the way it was. But she shook off her argumentative nature. Perhaps there was a reason why. 

Before she knew it, they arrived at the simple two story structure. Lotor’s house was built in the Altean tradition of white, thick walls, huge windows and graceful templed roof--it looked a little like the vacation cottage Alfor used to keep near the beach towns. She turned back and saw that the cottage had a clear view of the lake, the breezes blowing across the water must clear the house as well. Lotor opened the unlocked door and gestured for her to go in. 

“There’s a bedroom on the second floor. I have some clean clothes that will work. And take this.” 

Lotor held out a metal tumbler had the same frothy green drink that Ketina had offered her the first time here. 

“Drink it. And rest.” Their fingers brushed slightly as he handed the drink to her. Lotor immediately stepped back and bowed. “I take your leave, Princess.” 

It was difficult to maintain an royal aura while he was shirtless, but Lotor had managed somehow. Allura watched him disappear down the hallway and she got the unmistakable feeling that their conversation was over. He didn’t want to talk. 

Allura sighed deep and trudged upstairs. She found the bedroom quickly enough, there were no other bedrooms and every other room was filled with books or some kind of training lab. She padded towards the wide white bed and realized with a start that she was in Lotor’s bedroom. Unzipping her flight suit, she was glad to be out of her wet clothes and she went into the closet to grab a clean shirt. She shrugged it on and took a sip from the tumbler. Her eyes were so heavy. Lotor was right, healing was also another energy draining activity. Stumbling towards the bed, Allura managed to get under the covers and she stretched her legs through the sheets. At least Lotor didn’t sleep like a soldier, he liked a nice soft bed. Allura stroked the one pillow which still had the indentation of his head from the morning. She buried her nose in the pillow, sighing deep and long. Everything smelled like him. 

When she finally woke up again, it was night time. She stretched awake, disoriented by her surroundings. Outside her window, the lume flies hovered in thick swarms like another celestial body in the night sky. Looking down at the crisp white shirt she slept in, it was clearly a man’s shirt since it was much too big for her. She rolled up the sleeves and checked to see if the shirt was long enough when she stepped out of the massive bed. Her flight suit was gone so that meant that at some point during the day, Lotor came in to check up on her. She smiled to herself. Her hair was a mess, but the lake water left it surprisingly soft. She plaited it quickly and looked for a mirror to make herself presentable. 

Making her way down the stairs, Allura only wore Lotor’s shirt and her bare feet were quiet on the smooth floors of the house. She didn’t know why, but she almost expected Lotor’s house to be in Galra colors, but there were only cream walls and dark wood. No deep purples or reds anywhere. The entire place felt like a sanctuary, like, no one ever talked too loud, but also that no one ever laughed too hard. She frowned at the bare walls. There was no trace of him anywhere, and she assumed he’d been living here for decaphebs. 

She felt a little guilty sneaking through Lotor’s house alone, but she wanted to talk to him. Wandering through the wide hallways, she got to a door that lead to the outside. She only had to push a touch and the door cracked open and swung wide to reveal a night garden. Allura let out a slow gasp. How beautiful this was. The night garden had rows upon rows of flowers that glowed with faint bioluminescence, just like the lume-flies. Closing her eyes, Allura let her nose take in the notes of magnolia and jasmine, the floral notes so much like home that it made her tear up. When she opened her eyes again, everything looked like a painter softly touched the each flower petal in light. She touched one giant bloom, glowing dark violet, and it shrank back at her touch. The night air on this planet was cool and moist. She breathed in deep and for the first time in months, her ribs didn’t ache and her headaches didn’t come. 

The garden was enclosed by breezy cloister. In a way, Allura was becoming enchanted by Lotor’s home. After all, wasn’t the home all the you needed to know about the person? Allura followed the cloister until she saw a heavy door, the double moon gleamed against the dark wood. It was ajar. Allura squeezed into the opening silently and saw Lotor, deep in thought. He sat at a chair in front of a fire-chamber, burning an aromatic pine that rather liked, and his concentration was directed at the fire. It was the first time she had seen Lotor without him knowing. He was always so aware, attuned his environment, attuned to her. Suppose that you’ve lived for 10,000 years amongst people you couldn’t trust, Allura guessed that she would be a bit jumpy too. She shifted her weight left and right and waited for him to notice and when he didn’t, she padded silently towards him on the thick carpets. She glanced around and realized that she was in his library, thick volumes both digital and physical stacked high everywhere. 

“Hello.” 

He turned toward her voice, his face solemn. 

“Princess. How do you feel?” He got up, and Allura always forgot how commanding he was in a room like this. His eyes scanned her up and down. Allura felt the bloom of heat on her cheeks, but she twisted her hands behind her back. He had no right to affect her like this. 

“I feel good.” She nodded. “I feel better than I’ve felt in months. Thank you for taking care of me.” 

“There’s no need.” He sat back down. “Your flight suit has been cleaned. It should be downstairs.”

“You did my laundry?”

“Yes.” He turned back to the fire. “Do you have a flight plan, Princess?” 

“Lotor.” She hesitated, maybe this wasn’t the right time. “Is there something wrong? Are you upset with me?” 

“Princess. Not in the least.” He gave her a bland smile. “Is there anything else I can help you with before you go?”

“Are we not friends?” Allura said suddenly. 

Lotor nodded. 

“Then, why are you being like this?” She gestured to him. “You’re standoffish. You refuse to look at me in the eyes. You act like when I touch you that you’re getting burned.”

“I don’t want you to forget who I am.” Lotor’s voice was clipped. “Don’t forget that I’m the person that drained those Alteans. You should remember that before you trust me for too long.” 

“I didn’t forget.” Allura’s brows were knitted together. “I understand what you had to do.”

“Can you, Princess?” His voice was rougher now. “I’ve been alive ten thousand years and draining Alteans was probably the least of the things I’ve committed. Do you want to hear about all of it? The planets that lost generations because of me? The destruction of lives that can never be forgiven? Can you really understand, Princess?”

“Lotor.” She stood, her heart dropping to her stomach. “What are you saying?”

“Princess Allura, I am not going to ask for forgiveness for ten millennials of deeds.” 

“I didn’t expect it!” Her temper flared. “I just wanted to know if we were still friends. I have always been able to count on you. Surely, we have an understanding. Surely, we’re beyond you treating me like some diplomat attache?”

“We’re not beyond anything, Princess.” His voice was steady. 

“Lotor, I kissed you and you kissed me back.” Allura’s chest rose and fell. “You feel something for me.” 

“I am simply making my position clear to you. Princess, I will have to ask one thing of you.” 

“What is that?” 

“I would like it if you didn’t come back here.” Lotor’s voice sounded far away, like she was listening through a hollow tube. Her emotions were wild and spinning like a centrifuge. She glared back at him, trying to suss a new meaning behind what he was saying, but he gave away nothing. His poker face was impressive. 

“Fine.” Allura gripped her hands together. “Prince Lotor, I recognize your service in gratitude. The New Altean empire owes you a great debt. I will make sure that this planet stays hidden.” 

The room was as quiet as an empty church, with the sharp snaps of the cracking fire. Minutes ticked by and she couldn't move from where she was rooted. She had so much to say, words clogging up her throat, thoughts filling her mind, but none of it would dissuade him. Allura stood up straight and gave him a brief nod before she went to the door. She pressed on the door handle and gave him one last look, his shoulders still pushed together and tense. 

When she slammed the door, Allura found herself in the night garden again. This time the beauty wasn’t comforting at all. It seemed to exclude her. As Lotor had done every moment they spent together since the rift. He was hellbent, insistent on his distance from her, he wanted nothing to do with her, unless it was saving her life. Allura wanted to scream back at him, but that wouldn’t be befitting royalty. 

The next morning, Allura woke and quickly zipped on her flight suit. Technically, she was ahead of schedule. She was only supposed to spend three quintents here, but she had fully healed in one. She should be happy with the results. After all, didn’t she come to heal, not for some grand romantic gesture from Lotor? The possibility of them being anything other allies was quickly diminishing before her eyes. Allura shook her head, she didn’t have the time to deal with herself. There was too much to do and too much at stake. 

Taking one last look at the bedroom, Allura made sure she left nothing behind when a small recording device on the bedroom shelf got her attention. She looked at the thing, and bit her lip. What if it was private? Something Lotor made for himself? Why was she so darn nosy? He had all but made things crystal clear last night, but Allura help but wonder about the difference in how he was acting on this planet and how he was in the black sincline after the battle of Mazzaxy. She took a deep breath and decided to access the memory drives anyway. As the small round device beeped to life, she saw the holographic projections on the far wall. It was his helmet recording. 

On the wall, it was her. Her face in her old helmet, 

“I’m glad you’re here to help me now. I never would have gotten here without you.” 

Allura clutched the recorder to her chest. Oh dear, it was Oriande. She leaned against the wall, her back slump. What did this mean that Lotor would keep a recording of her in his bedroom? She blushed at her first thought. She stalked downstairs to find the answer, only to bump into him at the foot of the staircase. 

“Princess Allura.” He bowed deeply. “I’ve come to escort you back.” 

“You’re a liar.” She folded her arms and glared at him, refusing to step down the last two stairs so that she was eye level. 

“Pardon?” Lotor raised an eyebrow. 

“You’re lying to me. You’re still in love with me.”

“Princess, I’m not sure how one kiss in my ship means that I’m in love with you.” 

“Liar!” She was truly angry now. “I found the Oriande tapes in your bedroom. Why would you keep a tape our trip there? Do you watch it? Do you think about me? Do you dream about me? Because that doesn’t sound like someone who doesn’t have feelings for me.” 

“It’s irrelevant.” His brows furrowed. “It’s the middle of war.” 

“No, it isn’t. I need it.”

“No, Princess. You don’t need anything. You are more than enough.”

“Prince Lotor, did you forget that you proposed to me when you were still my prisoner?” She intoned darkly. “When I held all the cards and you still wanted to marry me?” 

“That was political.” 

“How many times have you saved my life?” She lifted her chin up. 

Lotor’s eyes drifted to her mouth and back up to her eyes. Allura decided she didn’t want to take any chances and reached to stroke the side of his temples. His eyes fluttered shut at the feeling of her fingers carving their way through his hair. 

“Look at me, Lotor.” She waited until his eyes were open again, his blue eyes blazing into hers. “I don’t love you because you saved my life. I love you because we’re the same. You see the good in the world. You want peace for the universe. You make me want to be better, to hope for better, to do more. You are nothing like your father. And I know. I know that your father killed mine. And we have so much blood between us. On your hands and on mine. But every single time we’ve been together, I’ve found my horizons expanded and my spirits raised. You can flourish if someone would just let you. You love so hard but you’re so afraid of when people are taken away from you. You would do anything to prevent the one you love from getting hurt. That’s why you started the shield guardians, isn’t it? Because you couldn’t bear the thought of Alteans dying again. You wanted save your friends, like the mining colony, above everything else. I know that now. I understand why you did what you did. But please, Lotor. You let me get close once. And everything when to hell.”

She placed her hands against his chest, feeling his heartbeat. The steady drum beat of it made her ache. She had missed him. 

“Will you let me in again?”

Lotor took a deep breath. 

“I’m sorry Princess. I can’t. I cannot keep you.”

Allura felt her throat dry up. Of all the things she was prepared for, having her one chance disappear before her didn’t even occur as a possibility. He kissed her hand, reverent, like a saint worshipping a goddess. Allura wanted to scream. She didn’t want his worship or his distant admiration from afar. 

“I’ve never thought you were a coward before, but now I do.” Allura felt the words leave her mouth before she could stop them. “I will leave, Prince Lotor. On my own.” 

An varga of walking later, Allura felt finally far away enough from Lotor to let her mouth wobble. She was far away from everything and alone. Sinking to her knees, she grabbed at the grass for few doboshes, twining her hands in the blades and letting herself wail. She was being kind to herself. She wanted to feel the deep keening pain of rejection. Why was it so hard? Why did everything have to be so hard. Couldn’t she just have a moment of a happiness? She fought so hard for him. Allura was so deeply bewildered. There was no one in the universe that understood her the way Lotor did. She had laid out her soul for him, but he wanted none of it. He was so fixed on this idea that they couldn’t be together. Allura winced as the headaches returned to her temple. She was so enjoying her vacation away from her migraines. Wiping her eyes, Allura spotted the familiar emblems on her transporter. 

It didn’t matter that a Princess had gotten rejected again. Allura squared her shoulders. If she wanted for nothing, then she would lose nothing. She had to go on. Allura grabbed the door handle of the transporter, determined to bring none of this turmoil back to the war at hand. 

“Princess!” 

Allura turned and saw Ketina waving frantically to her. 

“You’re leaving now. When will you come back?” She was out of breath and had been apparently running. 

“Ketina, I’m not sure. I don’t have a lot of time. The paladins are expecting me back on New Altea and Prince Lotor. Well, I’m not sure if it makes a difference if I come back.”

“It will. I promise, but you have to come back soon.” 

“What do you mean?” Allura frowned, she felt a suspicion flare its ugly head. “What do you know?”

Ketina twisted her mouth and gave her a direct look. “I don’t even think this is my place to say at all. He should have told you. But if you don’t come back in forty decaphebs...”

“Forty? I can’t guarantee how long the war’s going to go on. We’ve been fighting for nearly ten years already. Haggar’s grown only more powerful, but so have we. There are millions of battles I must win, hundreds of alliances to be formed before the war is over.” 

“Lotor might not be here in forty years.” Ketina suddenly cried out. 

“What?” Allura scanned Ketina’s face for clues. “Is he moving?”

“No. He’s dying.”

* * *

Chapter 6 is ready to go! Leave me some comments, would love to know what readers think about my world.


	6. MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE UNIVERSE

**CHAPTER 6 - MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE UNIVERSE**

_Previously, Allura receives some shocking news about Prince Lotor._

Allura felt all the air go out of her lungs. “How--how is that possible? He seems so healthy.” She scoffed at Ketina. “And he’s older than dirt.” 

“Do you remember the shield-guardians?” 

Allura nodded. 

“Lotor has been going to the rift, gathering quintessence, to ensure that the shields can stay up forever, without shield-guardians. And he’s succeeded.” 

“But, he’s immune to the rift. He was corrupted by quintessence from birth. He said so himself. ”

“He lied.” 

Ketina’s mouth was pressed into a thin line. Allura searched her face for a hint, a clue, anything to suggest that Ketina might just be kidding or this entirely screwed situation wasn’t as serious as it was. Allura frowned at Ketina’s body language, it didn’t look like she was anywhere near jesting. 

“He’s gonna kill me for telling you.” Ketina muttered. “But when I saw him looking at you the way he did, I knew you two weren’t just military allies. And he’s done so much for me. It’s not fair for him to go on like this. Without you knowing.”

“Oh.” Her entire body was shaking. Allura heard a high-pitched sound in the back of her ear drum as she watched Ketina’s lips move in slow-motion. She frowned, it was like Ketina was speaking a foreign language. Allura felt herself grapple for support against the aircraft wall, her legs buckling, and she landed hard on the steps. 

“What’s happened, Ketina?” Allura couldn’t look at Ketina, she could only trace the blades of grass in front of her feet. 

“Every time he goes to the rift, it shortens his life by half.” 

“How many trips has he made?”

“Five.” Ketina gestured towards the blue lake behind them. “It’s also why he stays here. The rift damages his DNA every time he goes and the lake, it helps. It’s therapy, and it keeps him healthy, so he can’t ever stay too far away from it. He’s tied to it for the rest of his life.” 

“Stars.” Allura pressed both hands against her temple. Her mind was churning furiously. Every single scrap of conversation she had with him rewound to the front of her mind. The last ten years in reverse were crystal clear. Lotor could only come to her when he was healthy enough to travel to where she was fighting. It was why he never stayed. No matter how much she begged him, and kissed him, and longed for him. It wasn’t about her. His body would start to break down without the lake. Allura felt the hot sting of tears beginning at the corner of her eyes. She was overwhelmed. The reason that he lost his immortality and his health was for the preservation of New Altea. Her throat closed up. Allura had dreamed so much in the long years away. She had a fantasy of returning to New Altea, victorious, and she would hop the transporter to this planet where she would woo her exiled prince. She would have had time to convince him. She would have worn him down and all his ridiculous notions of love not being enough. He was enough for her. She would have had time to right all the wrongs of the Alto council for him, helping to pass amendments so mixed-blood Alteans would never have to suffer like the people on this planet. She would have fought to make the new world with him side by side. Allura let out a deep keening cry in her chest. No one had the guarantee of another day in this universe, especially not her, especially not Lotor. 

“No. It’s not possible. I need him.” Ketina was kneeling in front of her now. She took Allura’s hand and squeezed it. 

“Then let him know. Or he won’t be around to hear it.” 

The twisting pain in her chest wouldn’t go away. It felt like her heart was trying to jump out of her chest. Her lungs were burning, her eyes were on fire, and her mouth screwed itself into an ugly downward turn. 

“I hate him.” Her tears were hot, filling her eyes, but still unshed. She could barely see Ketina’s outline. She looked so blurry, like a soft mop outlined in water. 

“How could he? Why couldn’t he have just fought for me?”

Ketina shook her curls. “I think he is fighting for you.”

Getting up to her feet, Allura felt herself swaying as she walked but then she saw the blue water, the sunlight striking each wave with more gold than she had ever seen. Like a brand new universe of celestial bodies on its surface. Yes, blue. Blue like Lotor’s eyes. Blue like the rising gas of a new star. Blue like her beloved. Blue like the dying idiot she was in love with. She started running. Her feet pacing faster and faster until she arrived at his front door. She thundered through the hallways until she arrived at the library. 

“Lotor, let me in!” Allura slammed her fists against the heavy wood doors. When she didn’t hear anything for doboshes, she kicked in the door and watched with satisfaction as the wood splintered. Lotor’s expression made her wish she had camera if she wasn’t so mad that she could killed him herself. 

 

“You could have knocked.” He got up and walked towards her, noticing her beet red face, snot streaming down her nose, her chest heaving up and down--she looked like she wanted revenge. 

“You should know, that I am fighting a war and I can’t come back for a very long time.” Allura kept the wavering out of her voice. 

“Yes, I am aware, Princess.” He tilted a volume in his hands, an old parchment wrapped in resin leaf and handed to her. “I should have given you this. It’s by an earth author, one of your paladins might know him. It’s called the Art of War. I find it useful from time to time, if a little reductive.” 

“Maybe more than forty decaphebs.” 

“Ah.” Lotor’s expression didn’t change. “Princess, I don’t want to keep you from the Hiron quadrant. Is there something else you needed?” 

She didn’t take the book. Lotor cocked his head and a line of worry started to form on his forehead. He ran his hands through his hands through his hair, his forelock springing back like it had a mind of its own. 

“Is there anything you want to tell me.” Her voice was low and quiet. 

“Pardon?” He leaned in towards her. “I don’t have any more information on Haggar in that quadrant.” 

“I’m giving you one last chance.” Allura’s voice was even quieter now, so Lotor kept having to lean down from his height to hear her. When his face was finally next to hers, her mouth next to his ear, she tugged him down. 

“You’re dying.” Her voice finally settled on a flatness that was damning. 

“Ah.” His face was calm, but his entire body immediately snapped back and set valuable distance between them. “Where did you hear that?”

“Ketina told me.”

Lotor immediately tapped the comm on his wrist. “Ketina, come in.” 

“Here.” Ketina’s voice was faint on the line. 

“Did you talk with Princess Allura recently?” She could see his jaw working the tension over. 

“Yes.”

“About?”

“I’m sorry Prince Lotor. You can’t keep it a secret forever. People are going to find out!”

“Damn it, Ketina!” He turned away from Allura so she couldn’t see his face. Allura grabbed his comm and hung up on Ketina. 

“I’m not wasting my time arguing whether she should have told me. Are you dying?” She studied his face and she noticed finally that Lotor had a fine sheen of sweat on his brow, she wasn’t close enough to notice it before. Which meant that he wasn’t nervous, he wasn’t on the most firm-footed ground, and for that little sign, Allura was grateful. 

“I’ve been alive long enough, Princess.” 

“So, you are.” Her voice finally broke. “But if I leave and you’re dead by the time I come back...” 

“Then you’d better win the war, and quickly.” He straighten himself up and cracked a ne’er-do-well half smile, like a death sentence just a jaunty notion. Allura felt herself drawn in, like he was gravity and she his object of attraction. She placed her right hand over her heart, trying to press the dull ache away. 

“Did you give up? I don’t understand. You always had a plan. You were thirty steps ahead of me at any given moment. The only reason I won against you was that you were consumed by the rift. And you never would have if I didn’t--.”

“Stop, Princess. You are my most formidable foe. You’re powerful, brave, and clever. And I couldn’t have lost to anyone better.” 

“Is that why?” She took another step towards him. “You were so cold to me this time when I came back? Because you couldn’t risk me finding out? Because you knew if I found out, I would try to stay?”

“There are more important things in the universe than how much I want you.” He was so still now, almost like a statue. “Like the universe.” 

“No, nothing’s more important to me.” Allura tugged at his shirt. 

“Allura.” He murmured. He removed her hand from his shirt and kissed her scarred knuckles. “It is done already. There’s nothing to accept. I didn’t tell you because it should not be important to you.” 

“That’s the first time you’ve said my name in years.” Allura gasped. “You truly think that you don’t mean anything to me? Even when I’ve told you otherwise?”

“I cannot mean anything to you, Princess.” Lotor’s eyes were weary. “If you were to know me, really know me, all of it--the sordid histories, the ill-fated choices, the betrayals, the people I’ve hurt, there would be no end to it, Princess. I have the blood of thousands on my hands.” 

“Do you think of me as a simpleton?” Allura’s eyes flashed. “Do you really think I can’t understand who you are? I know who you are. I am a Allura of Altea and I have been fighting a losing war for ten decaphebs and that might not be ten thousand years, I think I know a thing or two about planets who counted on me while I lost their best soldiers, losing friends, and sacrificing good people to win.” 

Lotor was quiet. 

“I never wanted to see you ...do the things I’ve had to.” He said soberly. 

“I didn’t have a choice, Lotor.” She stepped closer. “Just like you didn’t. We are both fighting for what’s left that’s good in the universe. Surely, you see that in me as I see it in you.” 

“I do see it, Allura.” His hands covered both of hers. “You’re the hope, Allura. You’re the one. I can only spend my remaining years here. You cannot. Once I’m gone, it would devastate you.”

“How are you so sure? Maybe I will be fine.” She hiccuped, speaking through her runny nose. 

“Alright. You will be fine. I presume to know too much.” 

“It’s because you’re too old for me.” Her arms wrapped around him like they were in a hurricane and he was going to blow away. 

“Ah, ageism rears its ugly head.” He smooths back her hair from her face as she tilted her face upwards. “Technically, I think I was born after you.” 

“I could kill you.” She tried to screw up anger in a place where she only seemed to have a pit of despair. 

“Don’t waste it on me.” He smiled, lopsided. He untangled her arms from his waist and stepped away. “Go save the universe, Allura. I’m counting you.”

Allura shook her head, tired of the constant evasion from him. It was bullshit, and he knew it. 

“Don’t you want me?” She changed her tactics. She didn’t wait for him to make the first move. Allura knew in her gut that this moment wasn’t theirs to have--it was a stolen moment out of a timeline that had her leaving earlier or Ketina being too late to deliver the news. Prowling towards him like a lioness, she followed Lotor as he backed himself against the wall. She held his gaze, like she was trying to hypnotize her prey, and her hands found his chest where she could feel his heart beating like wild rabbit in a trap. She smirked, Lotor didn’t have a chance in hell. Allura wrapped her arms around her prince’s neck, fingers digging into the trapezius muscle that were hard and unyielding; her mind flooded her with images of how her ankles would look tucked over his shoulders if he bent her in half, taking his pleasure, filling her with himself. Glancing at his lips, she remembered how they tasted like a good wine. When she finally brushed her mouth over his, he groaned in response.

“This isn’t fair, Allura.”

“You never played fair.’

Her fingers ran through his scalp, his hands going to the back of hers and cupping the cradle of her skull. She was on fire for him, and she would show him with her hands, her body, and her focus. A guttural moan escaped her and immediately, Lotor reversed their positions, crushing her against the wall. She breathed in his scent, it was overpowering how much she wanted him, desired him.

“Lotor, I’m in love with you.” She licked the shell of his ears. “You can either bow to me or you can fight me. But I’m not letting you go. Not this time.”

Lotor’s chest rose and collapsed in a deep sigh. His fingers tangled through her hair. His mouth laid a trail from her jaw down to her throat. 

“I suppose you didn’t leave me much of an option.”

Allura moaned, oh heavens, it had not felt like this with anyone. Ever since their first kiss in Oriande, right after she discovered its secrets. His large hands span across her waist and travelled south to fondle her ass. She pressed even tighter into his body, she felt the rigid length of him against her belly. 

With his hands gripping her buttocks, sliding down to where her legs met and with a tiny bit of leverage, he lifted her easily onto his hips. She hung to the the back of his neck, he had full access to her neck, his tongue sliding hot and wet along her pulse. Nipping along her jaw, he rubbed his face against her cheek. His eyes drift down to her lips and his tongue licked his right fang. Her eyes followed his tongue. Allura shuddered, she wanted his mouth everywhere. 

“You win, Allura.” He grunted in her ear as his hips thrust against her hot core. Even through layers of their clothes, she could feel the outline of his cock fitting against her pussy, the hardness thick and exciting. She pulled his head back to her mouth, and opened herself to him, letting his tongue plunge into her mouth. 

“Stars.” He bite her lower lip. “You taste so good.” Lotor kept grounding his cock into her softest area and the effect was making Allura lose her mind. She could already feel the pool of hot juice wetting her panties. 

“I’m so hot.” She nibbled at his neck. “Take off my clothes. I need to feel you against me.” 

Lotor let her down to the ground, his hands fidgeting all over her suit, pulling frantically at lapels and buttons. 

“Where the hell does this open?”

“Your hands are probably too big to find the zippers.” She laughed. Placing a finger on mouth to silence whatever come back he had, she soon regretted the choice when he wrapped his lips around her index finger, sucking and nipping at her digits. His fangs placed little baby points of pressure all over her skin. Oh stars, if she didn’t think she could get any wetter, she was wrong. 

She leaned back against the wall and peered at him through her lowered eyelashes. Finding the hidden seam, she dragged the zipper open from her neck down to her navel. He could see the soft mounds of her cleavage, but her nipples were still tantalizing hidden. Allura shrugged out of her flight suit and she giggled when she saw the state she had Lotor in. He swallowed hard, like a dying man and his right hand squeezed the outline of his cock firmly. 

Allura was naked, her breasts with a fine sheen of sweat from their heavy petting session in her flight suit, her black panties just a small triangle of lace held up by a ribbon. 

Lotor had to place a hand on the wall to steady himself and stared with open hunger at her nude bust. She felt her nipples hardening. Feeling bold, she reached towards his pants to feel the full weight of his cock. 

“Allura. Heaven above.” He let out a guttural noise. “That feels so good.” 

Taking advantage of the difference in their height difference, she glanced up at Lotor, sloe-eyed and full of lust. Rubbing her hands from her waist up to her chest, Allura gave a firm lift and jiggled each breast to tease Lotor. She twisted her own nipples and groaned at the sharp, erotic feeling. Her back was flush against the wall. Allura let her right hand drift down passed the sharp line of her hips and she skimmed her fingers along her panty line. She yanked at the ribbon on her right hip and her underwear fell away. Allura’s smile was pure deviltry, she loved the way his heated gaze moved over her. 

“You do not wear those to go into battle.” Lotor’s voice was husky. 

“No, I wore them because I was going to fuck you.” 

Her fingers splayed against her belly, tangling through the silver hair on her mons, and then dipping one middle finger deep into herself. They could both hear how wet she was. 

“Oh, Lotor.” She panted. “Do you know how much I think about you when I’m doing this?”

* * *

Omg, we're finally at the smut portion of our story, but where are my comments? Yeah! get ready for another sizzling chapter! Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!


	7. FIREPLACE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, finally, 3600 words of smut for our aliens

**CHAPTER 7 - FIREPLACE**

Her fingers started moving rapidly, dipping in and out of herself, laving her clitoris with her own fluid. Her hips grinding into her hand. Her eyes fluttered closed for a second and immediately, she felt his arms scooping her up. Lotor looked down at the princess in his arms, her fingers still buried in her crotch, and he took her open mouth, stealing away her oxygen.

He crossed the library in a few steps and set her down on the deep plush rug that felt as silky as it was soft. Lotor set her down on the pile of pillows in front of the fireplace, where it was still burning an aromatic pine. And then he withdrew himself and sat back. She shivered, even with the warmth from the flames, she missed the way his body heated the both of them. When Allura reached out to touch him, he pushed her hands away. 

“Allura.” His voice coarse and hard. “I want to watch you touch yourself. Bring yourself to orgasm. I want to see all of it.” 

“Oh.” Those were all the words she had. 

Lotor was deadly quiet. She blinked rapidly, she couldn't believe she was this wanton as she spread her legs open for his eyes. Licking her fingers, she wetted them again and placed two against her clit. Allura watched his face, he seemed to be completely entranced. He slowly start removing his shirt as she moved her hands over her own body, her hands sliding from her open knees to each thigh, skimming the sides of her hips and floating around the curves of her breasts. She squeezed her breasts together, antagonizing Lotor to no end. Her back arched up and she tilted up her hips so that he could see her full seam.

“Allura. I can see inside you.” He sounded so obscene and it made her as wet as the lake outside. Finally, Lotor unbuckled his pants and reached to touch himself. 

“Oh!” Allura heard herself keening when he finally took out his cock, heavy in hand. She almost lost her breath. His penis wasn’t the same girth all the way through. The color was almost a deep amethyst and his cock was swollen wider at the head and tapered only slightly towards the base of the stem, but the whole thing was still quiznaking huge. She shrank a little, intimidated and aroused at the same time, her womb throbbing in anticipation. It had been years since she studied Galran anatomy, but she recognized the distinctive ridges along the side. Her brain was still trying to comprehend it all when she realize that Lotor was basically shaped like a juicer meant for her pussy. Allura started sweating profoundly. 

But there was still the rest of the prince to take in. The expansive broad muscles of his deep chest narrowed into a set of abdominal muscles that were as clean and formed as marbled blocks. He hadn’t turn around yet, so Allura didn’t get to look at his ass, but she was sure she wouldn’t be disappointed. She let her eyes drift over the rest of his body, there were the strong thighs leading to a juncture at his hips. Those most delicious notches that she wanted desperately to taste. She wanted to fit her tongue into the deep grooves and she trail down to his penis. Her fingers were working furiously now as she noticed all the veins right above his crotch, running like major roads to the final destination of Lotor’s very engorged cock. 

“Mmm, I want your cock in my mouth. I would--I would take the head and choke on it until I cried.” She felt her fingers thrusting inside of her now. Getting up on her elbows, she had never been so exposed to anyone like this. Her knees were akimbo, her hips kept circling, expecting a passenger who was just out of arm’s reach. 

Lotor grasped himself in his hand and pump it a few leisurely times, his thumb smoothing over the tip, and spreading the pre-cum over the smooth muscle, Allura felt her erotic imagination take hold. Plunging three fingers deep in herself, she flipped over on her stomach and used her other hand to place two fingers in her own ass. She came hard against the pillows, both hands deep in her own body. 

“Oh, oh.” She bite into a pillow and tried not to scream too hard. But she didn’t have to wait long. Still on her stomach, she soon felt Lotor’s hands squeezing her buttocks. He seemed to love her ass. His entire hand could palm a single cheek and he wasted no time spreading her apart. She was so shaky, like a newborn doe, when he lifted her hips up and she felt the hot swipe of his tongue licking her slit from top to bottom. 

“Lotor!” She felt her fingers puncture a hole into a pillow. He didn’t pay her any mind, his tongue was licking between the plush folds of her pussy, and it found her clit like he was had some special cum navigation system. The tip of his tongue fluttered against her nub and Allura screamed, pushing her bottom shamelessly into his face. 

“I’m going to eat this pussy until you come on my face.” Lotor growled and placed a loud smacking kiss right on her mound. 

“Lotor!” Her voice pitched to a squeak when she felt two of his large fingers slide inside her slippery passage. His bottom hand flicked her little bundle of nerves ceaselessly, while his fingers plundered her, spreading her wide. “Ah!” She felt a fresh gush of her juices leak out of her. She couldn’t even turn around to see him, he had fine-tuned her body so carefully that every single one of his movement caused her to see explosions of color behind her eyes. Her face was hot, buried in the pillow and she felt so dirty, wiggling her hips in the air like a sex starved animal. 

“Your pussy is going to soak through my rug, Princess.” She could hear the amusement in his voice. She had a sassy remark but then his mouth covered her ass and his tongue plunged into her other hole. 

“Ho--How can you??” She spun apart. A million gold threads unraveling all at once. A burst of confetti at a birthday. Fireworks over New Altea. Comet ships in the rift. Even more powerful than her first orgasm, she felt herself spasming on his hand, around his mouth, the pace of her contractions coming so fast and hard she nearly felt like she was on a crashing spaceship. 

Allura felt herself drift back into reality, but Lotor was already gone. She panicked for a second. Was it too much? Had she scared him off when all the butt stuff she liked? She rolled onto her back, trying to calm her breathing and not taking this sudden departure personally. 

“Would you like some water?” Lotor appeared suddenly. He was still naked, his cock very hard, but he sat next to her, smoothing a hand down the side of her body. 

Allura sat up, with tremors still moving through her, and her teeth clattering when she tried to drink the water he offered. As a way of explanation, he took the glass from her when she had drunk half of it and set it away. He rose up and climbed over her sweating puddle mess of a body and pulled her by the back of the knees towards him, folding her legs carefully around him. His hips fitting right between her open legs. Allura’s hands smoothed over the solid muscle on his back, his skin was so soft but his muscles were so hard. She felt the raw power of him in her hands, like a spring about to pop as her hands grabbed his ass. She glanced up at his face, squeezing her legs around his hips and noting with satisfaction when he groaned. 

“Allura, you’ve made me hard so many nights.” He tilted her head to look directly into his heated gaze. “I’ve had you hundreds of ways, thousands of times, and this is the first time this has been for real. 

Lotor’s mouth laid a trail of kisses from the sharp angle of her hips towards the curve on the underside of her breasts. When his mouth closed over her right breasts, she sucked in a sharp breath when his fangs pricked lightly at the tender nubs. The feeling sent a straight shot of electricity, right to her groin. 

“I was afraid that you didn’t like what you saw.” Allura muttered, her face still bright pink. She leaned into his hand, his fingers grazing her cheek and plunging into her hair. His hands were rough now, gripping her loose mane into a pony tailed as he yanked at her head back. The force exposed her neck, and Lotor ran his short fangs along her clavicle, making the blood near her pulse run hot with danger and anticipation. 

“No, I want you like this, your legs open for me.” His mouth sealed over hers and Allura tangled her hands on the back of his head, deepening their kiss, breathing in and out. It felt like they were breathing as one. He broke off the kiss for a moment and chuckled. 

“I left and got you water, because--,” Lotor snarled against her, “this is going to be long--,” his cock was now rested like a waiting gladiator against her wet opening. “And very hard.” He rested himself against her opening, and when she felt the weight of his cock against her pussy and she pulsed, hard. He felt it too before getting on his knees. 

“If you weren’t this wet, I wouldn’t even try it in the first varga.” He grinned at her, his thumb teasing folds of her pussy, meeting at the top and lightly pressing on her clit. Oh sweet stars, was that a slight point of a claw directly on her clit? She shrank back, soaked and more thrilled. 

“What? The first varga?” Allura was in awe. “Altean mating usually only lasts half a varga. “How many vargas are we...” She suddenly had images of her body, drenched in sweat, laying languid and boneless while Lotor pumped into her like a machine. Her jaw slackened. 

“Galrans like to take their time in the physical things.” He squeezed her hips and his hands palmed her breasts. She arched into his hands, his palms were rough against her nipples. “That means, fighting and that means fucking.” 

“Ready?” He crawled up to her and kissed her, as tender as night music, but his hands were hot everywhere. His fingers surveyed every square centimeter of her skin, there was no secret left for Lotor--he spread her cheeks apart until she squawked indignantly, dipping into her ass crack to lightly fondle her sphincter. Now, his hands were pinching her nipples between his forefinger and his thumb, a extra hard squeeze to make sure she was throbbing all over. Allura nodded, almost too dumb by how turned on she was. 

His hands glided down from her waist and clutched both sides of her hips. His large hands, wrapped around and his thumbs almost met at the center of her belly button. Allura felt an odd sensation like Lotor was kneading her stomach. 

“Oh, that’s feels nice. But this---” She grabbed his hands and moved them lower, right on top of her clit. 

“No, this is for you, my princess.” He moved his hands back. “I’m loosening your abdominal muscles so that you can take all of me.” 

Allura’s eyes widen. She didn’t realize that she might not be anatomically ready for all of Lotor.

“I’ll go slow.” He pushed her legs into a wide butterfly, her pussy was now completely exposed. Even she could see that the lips were puffy and she was already so coated with her own slickness. Lotor grabbed the head of his dick, nudging it at her drenched petals. 

Allura bit her lower lip and nodded. He kept his hands on either side of her thighs, keeping them open like the jaws of life, and he eased himself in, one centimeter at a time never breaking his eyes away from her face. 

“Oh my stars.” Allura winced. “It’s so so so...big.” She grabbed his hands, pressing down on her thighs and held on. Nevertheless, she persisted. Her mouth fell open as the widest part of his dick sank into her. Tears sprang to her eyes, she had never been stretched so wide before. “Lotor, you’re going to split me in two.” 

She eyed the length of Lotor’s dick that was left and she started to worry. What if she couldn’t do it? She wanted so badly to feel the length of his entire cock resting against her womb. It was a craving she couldn’t explain. She wanted her insides to be Lotor and nothing else. 

“My love,” he groaned. “You’re so tight, let go for me.” Allura collapsed off her elbows and tilted her hips up so that Lotor could guide her hips onto the rest of his cock. Only the top of her head touched the ground as Lotor’s strong arms held her aloft on his cock. Wrapping one arm behind her ass, Lotor’s other hand was free now to play with her clit. Her body was responding to this huge intrusion by making more and more fluids. The combination of how completely filled up she was and Lotor’s fingers made a burst of heat travel from her spine to her throbbing crotch. She was melting from all the different sensations, her legs kicking behind his hips, helpless. 

“My love, are you alright? Can I move?” 

Allura opened one eye and she was shocked to see that he was completely seated inside of her.  
He gingerly laid her hips down, but he gripped the back of her knees and pushed her legs towards her shoulders, so she was completely bent in half. He followed. His huge shoulder pressing against the back of her knees, her ankles hooking around his neck. Allura sighed with relief, this angle eased her impossibly full pussy. Lotor held himself up in a push up position, his hip bone resting on the back of her thighs. She got quite a look at his arms, each muscle popping out in relief whenever he rocked into her. The slightest move from his hips and Allura cried out. 

“Allura.”   
She glanced up at his face, twisted with pleasure, desperately trying to control himself. Looking down the length of his body, the powerful muscular planes leading down to where they were joined, she stared in fascination at how widely she was stretched by him. 

“Be sweet to me.” Allura took a sharp intake of breath as Lotor drew his hips back and dragged his cock agonizingly out. She flinched at the feeling of her pussy without him and yanked on his neck. “Please, Lotor.” 

He pressed her knees to her shoulders and he lingered on her lips, his teeth nibbling all over. The small points of his fangs scrapped against the finest point of her ears and she cried out. He made sure to only withdraw halfway before he jammed himself again into her fevered body. This time she was prepared, his huge Galran dick was hitting spots she didn’t know could be all sensitized at the same time. She felt like she was glowing. Every pump of his hips drove so deep. She almost couldn’t fathom it. He rocked his hips, and it felt her body was filled to the brim. When he thrusted, Lotor bottomed out against her womb. Her cervix was getting hammered by his royal cock and she could feel her womb starting to pulse. With her head tilted back until he grabbed her hair again, and forced her to look at him. 

“Look at me when I’m inside you.” He grunted. Allura’s mouth slackened, the intensity in his eyes and the way she was impaled on his dick made her delirious. His hips pumped, untiring and vigorous, and Allura held on for dear life. 

“So wet, Allura.” His voice was strangled. “So tight and so wet for me. You’re mine, Allura. My mate.”

The loud smacking noise of their genitals together should have embarrassed Allura, but she was beyond caring about propriety. All the times she was a teenager in Altea and had formal courtships, she had never imagined it the way it was with Lotor, so raw and explicit. She gave herself over and like she would slip out of her skin if it weren’t for physical laws. As hard as he pumped, she was even softer and wetter before. Her insides gently fluttering around his rigid cock. She gave herself. 

Suddenly, Allura found herself on top of Lotor in his lap. He sat on the floor, with her legs wrapped around his hips. His hands were still gripping her ass, the claws digging in with pressure against each cheek. She shuddered, from this angle, she could control how his cock hit her insides. His right hand splayed across her ass, angling each thrust of his cock against her. And then she felt his fingers trail the moisture from her pussy to her ass. One finger kept circling the secret sphincter and Allura pulled back to stare in shock. 

“Do you want it?” His eyes were hooded, and his hips still thrusted at a languid pace. 

Alluar blushed deep and nodded. She leaned forward and kissed him deep, their tongues twisting with each other, his lips bruising hers. Lotor moved his mouth towards the peak of her breasts, worrying her hardened nipples with his teeth. The sharp feeling shot through her, and she pressed his head to her chest, relishing the feeling. 

“Ah!” Allura felt two of his fingers stretch into her asshole and she backed involuntarily into his hand. Lotor responded by thrusting up again, refusing to yield the the progress he had made, and she bucked wildly, now caught between his hand and his cock. 

“I would like to fill every one of your holes, Allura.” His crude language made her so wet. He had such a royal, dulcet tone when he spoke that now he was using the same voice to talk dirty to her...She ached all over. Her poor pussy had taken more than its fair share and now her asshole was going to get fucked by Lotor’s fingers until she blacked out. Her eyes rolled back in rapture as his fingers worked her hole and his cock filled her pussy. He timed the two in tandem so as soon as she recovered from her pussy clenching, she would feel her ass contracting around his fingers. 

“Lotor, oh you’re everywhere.” She screamed his name over and over again like an incantation. The rising warm tide of quintessence that she felt in the rift was here now too. It’s silken luminous tendrils spiraling out to where Lotor’s body met hers to every cell in her body. She panted for air. Allura couldn’t see straight anymore, her hands became useless, slung around his neck like a marionette doll. 

“Allura, I will fill you with my cum.” Lotor growled in her ear. “My mate. My Princess.” The thought of him shooting his load inside her body finally triggered a pinball effect. 

“Ahh!” Allura felt the snap of wave crest from her belly down to her pussy. She felt lightheaded, the flood of pure bliss rocked out from deep in her womb to all the extremities in her body. There was a tight tingle everywhere now. Now she was squeezing as hard as she could, her pussy pulsing savagely around the wide girth of him. Lotor worked his hands through her hair, holding her upright, his eyes sweeping over her quivering breasts, her stomach rising and falling, her eyes glazed over in a daze of sexual satisfaction. But he wasn’t completely prepared. Allura was having multiple orgasms, as one wave receded, another stronger wave began again. Her eyes glowed pink and Allura sparked with energy. 

“What is happening, Allura?” His body was starting to quake. The smell of sex was heady and thick and now it was mixed with the electricity of power. His eyes widened as Allura started to ride him again, a halo of magic surrounding the two of them. Lotor had never seen anything like it. She grinded her hips faster and faster, her head tilting back, almost falling, but Lotor’s hands kept her hips anchored. 

Finally, she had the upper hand. She held Lotor’s face in her hands and watched as every pulse in her orgasm pushed him ticks from his own. His pupils were blown so wide she could barely see the the irises, but she marveled at how beautiful he was. She used a little extra Altean body trick and sent one more wringing squeeze down and he came apart. His hips shot up. 

“Fuck! Allura!” 

His hands still had the powerful grip on her hips and she felt his claws finally make little marks on her skin. He must have really lost control, Allura thought, he was so good at keeping his claws sheathed through all of their very strenuous lovemaking. She finally unsheathed herself from him, and the warm fluid flowed out between her legs.

* * *

“For a dying man, that was very good.” Allura draped herself on top of his body, her head at the crook of his neck and her feet wiggling around for his toes, but her legs were still too short. His fingers trailed lazily over her chest, lightly landing at her nipples, tickling at the curves under her breasts. His chest rose up and down steady and as she put her ears on his heartbeat, its steady rhythm had a rich baritone accompanying it. 

“For a goddess, that was so-so.”

“Hey!” She pushed up on her hands and smacked his mouth in jest. “But I do have a question, when you said that I was your mate, what did that mean?”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a writer who thrives on comments! Gimme gimme and I'll post the new chapter before the end of the week.


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